Friday 25th
The last BMS Transect of the season produced only 18 butterflies. Most numerous were Speckled Wood and Wall.
Wednesday 23rd
A helice Clouded Yellow at Sandilands on Monday was interesting enough, but records of this rarer form do occur here intermittently. However, scrutiny of the photos later revealed a restricted amount of black on the trailing edge of the hindwing, pale submarginal spots not encircled in black (but joined with the ground colour of the hindwing), and a washed out yellow colour of the hindwing. All these are features of the much rarer species pair PALE/BERGER'S CLOUDED YELLOW. Field identification of these two is fraught with difficulty (possibly impossible), however the relatively straight trailing edge of the forewing, greater extent of duskiness near body, and minimal black edging to hindwing all point to Pale Clouded Yellow. The vagrancy aspect also helps in that Pale Clouded Yellow is having it's best year on the near Continent for decades and is the more likely to occur, with Berger's primarily a sedentary species.
In recent decades this species has become exceptionally rare in the UK with the vast majority of records coming from the big Clouded Yellow invasion year of 1946. This constitutes our first area record since at least 1983.
Monday 21st
Clouded Yellows continue to be the main talking point. A minimum of 45 were seen on New Downs.
Saturday 12th
An impressive 26 Clouded Yellows were seen on RSPB Worth Marshes.
Wednesday 9th
There was an excellent count of 21 Walls on RSPB Worth Marshes, plus seven Speckled Woods, one Common Blue, one Brown Argus, two Small Heaths, and three Small Whites. Six Clouded Yellows and a Brimstone were on New Downs.
Tuesday 1st
Today's BMS Transect only mustered 48 butterflies. But it made up for it with diversity as 15 species were recorded. Surprisingly, the most numerous butterfly was Brown Argus with eight. Meanwhile the Clouded Yellows continue to do well around the Haven area. The field between the Observatory and the Haven held a eight-nine individuals.