I was very impressed by Prestbury Hill yesterday. I've never seen so many Small Blues and Small Heaths in my life. Duke of Burgundy were a delight, and the Marsh Fritillary on the Hawthorn blossom was a memorable sight. Great to chat with some familiar and new faces and the views were glorious.

A male Orange Tip waiting on Forget-me-not for the sun to re-emerge. Image taken near home in Leicestershire.

A pristine male Green-veined white making the most of a brief sunny spell in Leicestershire today.

A very enjoyable couple of hours at Charnwood Lodge this afternoon watching the Green Hairstreaks sparring in the Gorse. Some lovely specimens on show.

Decent day out butterflying in Leicestershire today. Good numbers of Peacocks observed on all sites visited and Small Tort have now been seen at Warren Hills and Bagworth Heath. First Orange Tip and Green-veined white spotted close to home.

@bcwarwickshire.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Time to dive into the 2024 @ukbms.bsky.social results. Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) had its worst year since monitoring began. This was also the case in each of the 4 UK countries separately. It’s had 10 below average years in a row now and has declined by a staggering 86% since 1976.

Lovely to see my first Green Hairstreak of the year at Warren Hills in Leicestershire today. Four were observed, despite a cold breeze, along with ten Peacocks.

Pics from Monday in Leicestershire. The goal was a Green Hairstreak at Warren Hills, but no sign as yet. I did, however, spot a couple of Brimstones at New Lount Nature Reserve and an encouraging 8 Peacocks at Bagworth Heath.

We are have updated our research into which garden plants attract the most pollinators. Our original research included 5 years of data. We then moved house so this is now 9 years of data over 2 different locations.
www.rosybee.com/research-study

I observed a total of four Small Tortoiseshells together in Leicestershire today, very close to home. Hopefully this is evidence that things are looking up for this species.

A short walk around my local patch in the March sunshine produced my first butterfly photo of the season (Comma) and a couple of bonus bird shots (Robin & Long Tailed Tit).

The lovely March weather yesterday inspired me to get the camera out of the bag. No butterflies to snap, but nice to see a few Hairy-footed flower bees making the most of the sunshine 😁🐝

Very much hoping that I will have a full butterfly season in 2025 and nothing will intervene to stop me getting out and about. A few of my favourite shots from last year 😊