Sunday, 14 Sep 2025
Exactly 2 weeks since my last walk on the Downs. My wife and I have been away for a while. What a difference in 2 weeks. Summer is gone and with it most of the insects. I walked for an hour, much needed exercise after the short holiday, and my tally of insects was – […]
Friday, 19 Sep 2025
A last bit of summery weather today, with an almost cloudless sky and the temperature already pushing 20° by 10:00. The last few butterflies were on the wing with a good variety but not many of anything. A grand total of 3 Common Blue, 2 Small Copper, 1 Speckled Wood, 1 Meadow Brown and 1 […]
Saturday, 20 Sep 2025
Overcast and quite windy, neither great weather for insects nor photography. Nevertheless, I did manage a photo of another Parent Bug (Elasmucha grisea) on a birch leaf, this one presumably with no more parenting duties, or more likely a new adult that will now overwinter. There were a few distant butterflies about and another sighting […]
Tuesday, 23 Sep 2025
The temperature dipping, with the first single digit overnight temperature of the autumn. ZERO butterflies, but… Something much more interesting. I came across a huge Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) colony, which was found because it straddled a path in one of the clearings making the entrances to the hundreds of nests more visible. A search […]
Thursday, 25 Sep 2025
Butterfly numbers continue to be counted on one hand with 2 Small Copper, a single male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus), a female Meadow Brown and a Speckled Wood making up today’s tally. A new insect, but not the greatest of photographs, is the White-footed Hoverfly (Platycheirus albimanus). Also photographed was a Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius). […]
Saturday, 27 Sep 2025
Exactly 2 butterflies today, both Speckled Wood. I added a new spider, the Common Sun-jumper (Heliophanus flavipes), on one of those nameless yellow composites. Two new galls were found on English Oak (Quercus robur) leaves, the Smooth Spangle Gall and Oyster Gall, caused by the agamic generation of the gall wasps Neuroterus albipes and Neuroterus […]
Monday, 29 Sep 2025
A very heavy dew this morning after an early mist. A distinct autumnal feel and look about the Downs today. The first patch of brambles I came to I watched for a few minutes as one of my favourite birds, a Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), searched for insects, larvae or spiders. […]
Tuesday, 30 Sep 2025
Maybe the butterfly season is now officially closed. ZERO count this morning. With the area of the old sheep enclosure now accessible I decided to check out some of the trees in this area and added a few things to my lists. On a Common Hazel (Corylus avellana) leaf I found a leaf mine possibly […]