Yippee: the 2016 Butterfly Season should soon be underway

Not long now and the new Butterfly Season should be underway and Wow, we have already seen a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly (late-January) and a Speckled Wood Butterfly (early-March). Yippee ...

We spent the vast majority of our Butterfly Watching Activity during 2015 within the boundaries of the LB of Bexley; favourite sites being the Crossness Nature Reserve and surrounding area, the East Wickham Open Space, Foots Cray Meadows, the Holly Hill Open Space and beside the Upper Bedon Stream.

We do also occasionally cross onto nearby Bostall Heath in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, on single occasions into Scadbury Park and Petts Wood Woods in the neighbouring LB of Bromley and once into the Kent section of Joyden's Wood (the Wood lying part within the LB of Bexley and part within the County of Kent).

We identified twenty-seven Butterfly' Species during 2015 *; all seen in the LB of Bexley with the exception of two Silver-Washed Fritillary Butterflies seen in the Kent section of Joyden's Wood.

Butterfly' Species seen during 2015:

Brimstone viz.

Brown Argus viz.

Comma viz.

Common Blue viz.

Clouded Yellow viz.

Essex Skipper viz.

Gatekeeper viz.

Green Hairstreak viz.

Green-Veined White (including the first individual reported during 2015 to Butterfly Conservation, seen by us beside the Thames Path in the Crossness Nature Reserve area) viz.

Holly Blue viz.

Large Skipper viz.

Large White viz.

Marbled White (a single individual seen in the Holly Hill Open Space) viz.

Meadow Brown viz.

 Orange Tip viz.

Painted Lady viz.

Peacock viz.

Purple Hairstreak (a poor picture alas but the best we could manage) viz.

Red Admiral viz.

Ringlet viz.

Silver-Washed Fritillary viz.

Small Copper viz.

Small Skipper viz.

Small Tortoiseshell viz.

Small White viz.

Speckled Wood viz.

White-Letter Hairstreak (a single individual seen in Foots Cray Meadows) viz.

Although, as previously mentioned, we spent the vast majority of our Butterfly Watching Activity during 2015 within the boundaries of the LB of Bexley, knees permitting, we are planning a few outings outside the Borough this year.

Proposed destinations (to look for Wild Flowers in addition to Butterflies) include:

Chislehurst Common (LB of Bromley)

Dartford Heath (Kent)

Downe Bank (LB of Bromley)

Fackenden Down (Kent)

Farningham Woods (Kent)

High Elms Country Park (LB of Bromley)

Hutchinson's Bank (LB of Croydon)

Jubilee Park (LB of Bromley)

Kemsing Down (Kent)

Keston Common (LB of Bromley)

Lullingstone Country Park (Kent)

Petts Wood Woods (LB of Bromley)

Queendown Warren (Kent)

Ranscombe Farm (Kent)

Scadbury Park (LB of Bromley)

Springhead Hill (East Sussex) with Butterfly Conservation

The Warren (LB of Bromley)

White Hill (Kent)

Specific targets for 2016 in the LB of Bexley are Marbled White, Silver-Washed Fritillary, Small Heath and White Admiral.

* Our so-called 'Life List' stands at thirty-one Butterfly' Species viz. the Species mentioned above plus Chalkhill Blue, Dark Green Fritillary, Small Heath and White Admiral (none seen in the LB of Bexley).

And we are hoping to add to this List this year with Species including Dingy Skipper, Duke of Burgundy (during our Butterfly Conservation' sponsored visit to Springhead Hill), Glanville Fritillary (re-introduced recently at Hutchinson's Bank), Grizzled Skipper and Small Blue. None of which alas are seen locally in the LB of Bexley. Yet!