Explore the diverse flora and fauna on the Downs from season to season through personal observations and photographs

Monday, 2 Mar 2026

Well spring starts officially at the Spring Equinox, which this year is on 20th March. ‘Meteorological Spring’ started yesterday. This ...

Tuesday, 3 Mar 2026

Today the Goat Willow (Salix caprea) catkins were attracting the attention of three different bees, Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), ...

Wednesday, 4 Mar 2026

Another sunny day, but not much new to report. Still just the same few bee species around and not much ...

Thursday, 5 Mar 2026

The Brimstone butterflies are back and in much larger numbers this time. A single Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) was also ...

Monday, 9 Mar 2026

Many trees and shrubs are now starting to show leaf buds opening. Most advanced seem to be honeysuckle vines, wild ...

Wednesday, 11 Mar 2026

A nice, sunny but windy morning. Again, not too many insects on the wing, apart from queen Buff-tailed Bumblebees either ...

Sunday, 15 Mar 2026

Another sunny yet windy morning – the ’March winds’ are definitely upon us. That didn’t stop me from finding something ...

Monday, 16 Mar 2026

Today, a search of evergreen leaves turned up this tiny (+/-2mm) sub-adult female(?) Bleeding Heart Spider (Nigma puella) on an ...

Wednesday, 18 Mar 2026

A cloudless, warm morning, with weather forecasters predicting the hottest day of the year so far. The insect population of ...

Thursday, 19 Mar 2026

Yesterday’s warm weather and sunshine continued today, but while there were still a lot of Brimstone on the wing numbers ...

Friday, 20 Mar 2026

Today marks the Vernal (Spring) Equinox, the official start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Having spent 40 years south ...

Saturday, 21 Mar 2026

Another day of glorious sunshine, but the temperature yet another 1° cooler. While butterflies were all but absent again it ...

Monday, 23 Mar 2026

Just like two days ago butterflies were all but absent today, with my total seen only 2. However, these were ...

Tuesday, 24 Mar 2026

A very windy and overcast day, so not much in the way of insects on the wing. No butterflies, 2 ...

Thursday, 26 Mar 2026

A sunny, but cold day. The March winds continue again limiting the number of butterflies on the wing. Total count ...

Saturday, 28 Mar 2026

Much colder this morning. As I set out the temperature was reported as 8°C (feels like 5°C taking the wind ...

Monday, 30 Mar 2026

A chill wind blowing again this morning, strong enough to make close-up photography quite challenging. Usually, individual leaves can be ...