Subject: Re: Spring buts - UK

From: Simon Coombes <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 18:58:37 +-100

Hi

We don't get Wall and haven't for several years now. Is it a declining
species in the UK?
Very common in Devon, especially around the coast.

>Let's hope they are joined soon, everything seems a couple of weeks =
>late.
My earlier post has some additions, even though the weather isn't particularly
 warm (V. sunny though)

P. icarus               Common Blue yesterday    and
C. pamphilius   Small Heath today
P. brassicae    (my first today)

This is possibly the most enjoyable butterflying time of the year down here,
 almost something new everyday.

Cheers
Simon

---

From: [email-masked] (Chris Raper)
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 16:04:24 GMT

>Very common in Devon, especially around the coast.

Phew. I was discussing this with a friend of mine a while ago and both
of us remember seeing plenty of Wall Brown (sorry, can't remember the
scientific name!) on the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire in the 1980s but now
you son't see any. :-(

>P. icarus               Common Blue yesterday    and
That's good for this time of (this) year :-)

>C. pamphilius   Small Heath today
I heard of one being seen on Tuesday (14th) in South Oxon.

> almost something new everyday.

The day-flying Leps are doing ok. With the sunny weather they have
been out in small numbers in sheltered localities but the night fliers
have been few and far between. I have run a Heath Trap (when the
temperature gets above 5dC) and have only got the really common stuff
in _very_ low numbers. I heard of a group of people who ran 5 Robinson
traps in the Bernwood area of Oxfordshire a week ago and got 10
species between all of them! Anyone who knows that area will realize
how bad that is.

Personally I'm not complaining about the recent wet weather. The cloud
cover should raise night time temperatures and the countryside has
been drying to a crisp for the last 2 months so everything really
needs the rain.

Cheers
Chris R.

--
All views are my own and are not necessarily those of my employer.