Sightings of Butterflies in Suffolk - 2013

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, Green Hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, White Letter Hairstreak, Silver-studded Blue, Wall Brown, White Admiral, Silver-washed Fritillary, Grayling and Small Heath.

Send Us Your Sightings
We are always interested in sightings of any butterflies in any location in Suffolk.
email them to sightings@suffolkbutterflies.org.uk (please make sure you enter a subject) and they will appear below within a few days.
Clicking on this link should launch your usual email program.  If this does not seem to work just use the email address.

If you see a Brimstone this record will also be passsed to the Brimstone and Buckthorn project

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.

Return completed form by November to 27, Draymans Way, Ipswich IP3 0QU or to recorder@suffolkbutterflies.org.uk 

Photographs from 2013 Sightings  (all pictures are the copyright of their owners)

        

Following photos by Matt Berry
       



Long-tailed Blue
  

Clouded Yellows - by Rob Speirs
       

Clouded Yellow var. helice by Paul Rusher
           

Swallowtail by Susan Hazell


White-letter Hairstreak by Carl Briggs
       

Wall by Bill Stone                                                                                                                                         Wall by Richard Perryman
         

Dingy Skipper Count

This morning's (May 26th) good weather, after a miserable spell, seems to have concentrated the Dingy Skipper population.  Seven pairs of eyes turned out this morning and we started with the archery area (no archery in progress) and quickly saw 11, including a mating pair.  The walk down  the adjacent conservation ride added 4, and 2 on 204 eastbound, which seemed OK.  Then things got better, with 6 more on the northbound stretch of 204, and another 7 at the scrubby patch where the ride first bends northward. 
From there we walked east, through several open compartments either side of the track, and into one on the northern side (TL838735).  It was a delight to count another 43 flying around the bird's-foot trefoil in an area we have not properly inspected before.
We then moved on to the widened Wordwell ride (where very few had been seen in the previous 5 years) and found 9  spread along the middle of the ride (but none at all along the E-W ride at the edge of the forest).  This was really encouraging; they were very active, spread over a wide area, and we saw 4 pairs in cop.  We were out for over 4 hours, and had logged a total of 83 (including one back at our cars on the John O' Groats side of the road).
Also seen: Brimstone, Small & GV White, Orange-tip, Green Hairstreak, Small Copper, Holly Blue, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Peacock, Comma, Speckled Wood, Small Heath and a handful of Mother Shiptons.
Well done, a great days count] In fact, I believe this was the second highest-ever one-day count. But we are not yet finished ....

Late Butterfly Season

The absence of butterflies during June 2013 brought to mind Rachael Carson's "Silent Spring".  The "June Gap" was much worse than usual as a result of the cool wet spring; larvae feeding up are running behind schedule, and people keep asking how far behind schedule.  Unfortunately, there is no single answer, as different species and their larval host plants have been affected in different ways.  Happily though, things seem to be moving at last.  Small Tortoiseshells have been emerging over the past few days, a few Meadow Browns are at last to be seen, and this afternoon, I saw plenty of freshly-emerged Speckled Woods.  But what of the rarer species?
Silver-studded Blues have been around in small numbers since 25th June, and 20 were seen at Westleton Common on 27th June.  We will hope for a warm week so that numbers will have increased towards a peak by our annual count at Minsmere on Friday 5th July.  With these variable seasons it seems to be quite tricky to predict the date of the peak in advance.  White-letter Hairstreaks are usually on the wing by the last week of June, but none have been seen yet this year.  White Admirals are usually seen by about 22 June, but none reported yet.  Silver-washed Fritillary might be out by the programmed event on 14th July, but I could not find any this afternoon.  Purple Emperor might be worth looking for from mid July too. 
Wall should have been flying during in May, but very few were seen in the inclement weather , which bodes ill for this waning species.  We must hope that enough survived and paired that the second generation (normally due in August/September) will be stronger. 
All the above will probably be flying later than their normal end-of-season dates.
Has anyone else seen Large Skipper?  They are usually on the wing in the last week of May, followed by the Essex and Small Skipper, but there have been very few sightings of any of them so far.  David Basham saw one on 25th June, and reported it on the sightings page of our website

Silver-studded Blue Count

Rob Parker:-  Many thanks to the 12 volunteers who came for today's (5th July) count at Minsmere. The weather was perfect and SSBs were flying in reasonable numbers at the 6 sites we counted. The total count for the day was 1282 males and 227 females = 1509 in total. The female proportion was 15%, which suggests another week to go before the populations peak.   As usual, a number of sites were not covered and RSPB are looking for more volunteers to join them to cover as much as possible on Tuesday (9th) afternoon. If you are able to participate, please turn up at the Warden's lodge at 13:30 on Tue 9th July. This is a second chance for those who were keen to come on the original (postponed) date.  

For your information, Natural England also arranged their counts today at Westleton Heath and Walberswick NNR. The result at Westleton Heath was better than recent years (67m & 16f, mostly south of the Dunwich Road). As expected though, none were to be found at Walberswick, where the colony is probably lost.  

The transects at Blaxhall Common and Purdis Heath are recording  reasonable numbers. The cockeyed 2013 season has somehow returned SSB timing to what it used to be 15 years ago - before global warming and soft winters brought everything forward. The Martlesham Heath count, normally on the second Sunday of July, should work out just right.

I thought you might be interested to know that the Purdis Heath count today had 22 males but still no females and the small patch at Ransomes 18 males and 2 females  - Darren Flint

Similar numbers at Ransomes CWS today: 3 females and between 15-20 males (pic of a nice fresh female attached).   Of interest is that the highest concentration of SSBs was on the small triangle area at the front of the site (behind the oil depot and bund next to road). Here I saw about 10 SSBs in what is a very small area (see pic attached). This area was scraped a few years ago (due to development) and has now become quite nice open heath habitat. I noted lots of ant nests and a reasonable amount of Erica cinerea.     I think this shows that scraping can work as a habitat management tool. Simone Bullion from SWT has requested that we scrape the Bracken area and we’ve agreed a cost to charge the landowner, with IBC carrying out the work. There will be adjacent Calluna vulgaris and Erica cinerea to provide a seed source, but perhaps we could also consider adding “strewings” from other cut areas of the site, or indeed from another site where Erica is abundant.  - Matt Berry