red admiral today

Naturenutz · #1 (**permalink**) 13-03-2010, 11:25 AM

Had a fresh red admiral today on the viburnum flower along with lots of honey bees here in bristol.

artdemole · #2 (**permalink**) 13-03-2010, 12:32 PM

NOW the sun is out and getting gradualy warmer,we all hope to see them soon.

pammosley · #3 (**permalink**) 15-03-2010, 09:17 AM

It`s great that the butterflies are staring to come out, warmer days may be on the way

Dragoner · #4 (**permalink**) 15-03-2010, 04:51 PM

Excellent news. Look forward to seeing some around here

Stephen

Paul_Corfield · #5 (**permalink**) 15-03-2010, 06:59 PM

Not seen any Red Admirals yet but had a Comma in the garden today and seen a few Brimstone in the last couple of weeks.

Paul.

bigdave60dog · #6 (**permalink**) 15-03-2010, 07:56 PM

Yeah, The Red Admirals seem to be overwintering in Britain quite regularly these days. This one must have survived the winter somewhere warm.
There are some Warm Westerlies coming. This should bring a good few overwintering butterflies out but are blowing in the wrong direction for the migrants

ashgale · #7 (**permalink**) 23-03-2010, 02:44 PM

spotted this one today in Clumber Park on a path between two conifer plantations, quite a large one,

according to the a-z any over wintering ones are likely to have perished , given the winter we have just had, is this likely to be an immigrant one, or just a lucky one ?

ashgale.

aeshna5 · #8 (**permalink**) 23-03-2010, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashgale

spotted this one today in Clumber Park on a path between two conifer plantations, quite a large one,

according to the a-z any over wintering ones are likely to have perished , given the winter we have just had, is this likely to be an immigrant one, or just a lucky one ?

ashgale.

I saw one flying on a fine day in early Feb in London, so most likely overwintered. Our worst weather was late Dec/Jan, with no really severe weather after Jan, though some hard frosts.

Quite a few were noted on the butterfly sites as successfully overwintered, so yours may have been one of these.

Susie · #9 (**permalink**) 23-03-2010, 10:25 PM

Continental winters are far colder than our own so there is no reason why they should have perished in the winter we just had.

Paul_Corfield · #10 (**permalink**) 24-03-2010, 09:10 AM

I think the ones that you see on the first decent warm day of the year are generally coming out of hibernation. The first Peacock reported in my county of Dorset was back on 16th January, the first Red Admiral was 6th Feb and first Small Tortoiseshell was 16th Feb. I got the first Dorset sighting of a Comma on 15th March which was the first proper warm day we had.

Paul.