Sightings of Suffolk Butterflies

Sightings of Butterflies in Suffolk - 2012

Butterfly Conservation is a registered charity dedicated to the conservation of butterflies and moths.

The Branch is always grateful for butterfly records and a recording form can be downloaded from the conservation section of this website. We would be particularly grateful for records away from the coast and information on the following species: Dingy Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Green Hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, White Letter Hairstreak, Silver-studded Blue, Wall Brown,
White Admiral, Silver-washed Fritillary, Grayling and Small Heath.

However we are always interested in sightings of any butterflies in any location in Suffolk.
You can email them to sightings@suffolkbutterflies.org.uk and they will appear below within a few days.

Please include the date, how many of each butterfly species seen, location with an ordnance survey grid reference if possible, and your name (if you want to). If you would like to contribute to the annual survey please read the notes on the Recording page.

Regular recorders are urged to use the website to inform others of interesting sightings, but please do continue to send all your records to the county recorder at the end of the season as usual.

There are a few fresh Small Tortoiseshells, and plenty of Red Admirals on the wing just now. I even had a Painted Lady on my buddleia this morning. Numbers are sadly low though. My transect counts are certainly going to be the worst in the 13 years I have been walking it. Probably other transect walkers and garden butterfly watchers are finding the same. Second generation Common Blues appear to be at a very low ebb, and the Small Coppers I saw yesterday had taken such a beating in the recent localized downpours that they were very short on scales. One of them looked almost albino - or see through, anyway. On the positive side, Graylings and Walls are also flying, although sightings of Walls are mostly from the Shingle Street/Bawdsey stretch of the coast and the immediate inland vicinity. Back in West Suffolk though, two seen near Sedge Fen are proof that they still have a toehold on that side of the county. All the same, many of you engaged in the Wall survey have nothing but nil returns to file. In the shelter of selected woodlands, Silver-washed fritillary had an excellent season, and flew for 7 weeks from 30th June until 18th August. By 18th August, most of those seen in 3 separate woods were worn or faded. I write in the past tense, but perhaps you know better? After the weather disruptions we have had this year, we may yet have an Indian Summer to keep those Red Admirals on the wing until Christmas.

In a season when everyone keeps asking me "Where have all the Butterflies gone?", it is nice to have a bit of encouraging news. Yesterday (18 Aug) someone said "It is nice to have Peacocks on my buddleia again", and 5 minutes later, I saw a fresh male Common Blue. Something seems to be happening at last. So, this morning with a blue sky and a forecast of a hot day, it seemed worth checking to see whether Silver-washed Fritillaries were still flying. I had heard from others who had seen them as late as 9th August. As I got into the car, I noticed a fresh Small Tortoiseshell on the buddleja in my front garden - a good omen. By 10:10, we were in the glade on the public footpath through Pakenham Wood, and we walked straight into a flurry of silver-washed Fritillaries. There were 4 in the air, and close by, I could see 8 taking nectar at two separate clumps of knapweed. The thistles had dried out, and the bramble blossom was over; fortunately the knapweed was plentiful and in the sun. I had hoped for one or two stragglers, so to find so many was a nice surprise. There was a high proportion of females, but both sexes were were worn and had lost their bright orange hue. The White Admirals seemed to be over, but there were plenty of other butterflies in the sunny glade, including fresh Peacocks. A walk around the outside of the wood brought a sighting of one female flying low in the shade, apparently searching for violets, and two more at the end of the wood where they had found some sheltered bramble still retaining some blossom.

An interesting observation of another female back at the glade, found it moving across the still moist muddy track. It kept settling on almost dry patches, and probing the ground with its proboscis. Mud-puddling is often said to be an all-male preserve; with this female it was an individual pursuit, not a communal exercise.

Obviously another outing was called for in the afternoon; I went to look at 2 more SWF woods. The first, a private wood near Stowmarket was almost as rewarding; I found at least 5 SWF flying in their favourite glade. These were also past their best, but still had plenty of vigour. Their bramble and thistle had also dried up, but in this case there was no knapweed alternative to be found. Interestingly, another worn female was seen probing the almost-dry bare earth - just as at Pakenham. It is very pleasing to find two of our SWF colonies doing so well.

Another stop at Northfield Wood found no SWF, but the consolation prize was a single White-letter Hairstreak at waist level, feeding on a thistle on the shady side of the ride. This brought my species count to 17 for the day; not bad for a season without butterflies, although I admit that the numbers were mostly low.

I returned home to another piece of good news - Two Walls had just been seen close to Sedge Fen - the first in West Suffolk after an absence of two years.