Recorded my first Orange-tips of 2024 in SU5682 - a BC Upper Thames 2km square with none recorded in 2020-23 (lacking spring visits in these years). Lots more spring gaps to fill in 2024 (see Hairstreak Spring issue 121, page 26). Please visit these gaps and add records!

It has been a bizarre year so far. I have only just seen my first 2024 butterfly today (a male Brimstone) flying in blustery sunshine in the garden. That is my latest first recorded butterfly date and a testament to the unruly weather...

Last Carrick work party of the winter season BC Glasgow & South-West Scotland 🐛🦋 started dull and ended in bright sunshine and warmth today. Eight great volunteers cleared gorse to help Butterfly Conservation 🦋 on the scenic Solway Coast. Well done all who have helped this season!

It has indeed come a long way since the turn of the Millennium!

Superb day at the BC Scotland Spring Gathering in Perth yesterday with a full house. Great speakers and fascinating moths to see outside. Wonderful to meet so many friends again in person. A huge thank-you to speakers, exhibitors and organisers! BC Glasgow & South-West Scotland 🐛🦋 Butterfly Conservation 🦋

Belated post to mark the last Aston Upthorpe work party of the 23-24 winter season BC Upper Thames. Good weather, great volunteers and a big area cleared to Butterfly Conservation 🦋. Well done all who came and helped so much over the winter months! ...roll on spring!

A belated post about work parties at Aston Upthorpe in late January: BC Upper Thames Butterfly Conservation 🦋 volunteers helping Plantlife Plantlife to plant 500 more junipers into Juniper Valley...working together for greater impact!

Break time for the BC Upper Thames Aston Upthorpe work party on Sunday - coppicing on the Oxon Alps!
A huge thank-you to the volunteers who came out and worked hard to help Butterfly Conservation 🦋

More great work by 11 BC Upper Thames volunteers at Aston Upthorpe (Oxon Downs) this morning, clearing scrub and coppice to Butterfly Conservation 🦋. It stayed dry and the sun shone (ahead of the next freeze!). A huge thank-you to all for your hard work!

Another successful BC Upper Thames working party at Aston Upthorpe last Sunday - keen volunteers with smiles (the weather behaved)! And a good area of scrub cleared to help Butterfly Conservation 🦋. Well done and a huge thank you to all!

It was a privilege on Wednesday to join a @speciesedge work party of 14 energetic volunteers cutting gorse on a sunny slope overlooking the scenic Solway between Sandyhills and Rockcliffe. A massive thank-you to all who took part. BC Scotland BC Glasgow & South-West Scotland 🐛🦋 Butterfly Conservation 🦋

Many thanks to the seven volunteers who did a great job of gorse clearing on the Solway coast today in between bad weather systems (the sun did shine briefly!) BC Scotland BC Glasgow & South-West Scotland 🐛🦋. Doing our bit to help restore habitat for Northern Brown Argus...Butterfly Conservation 🦋

Many thanks to the nine stalwart @savebutterfly volunteers who braved the damp conditions to clear scrub at Aston Upthorpe Downs/Oxfordshire BC Upper Thames this morning (some wisely escaped before the camera came out!). Trying to make a real difference for our butterflies...

On last transect of the year at Lids Down (Oxon), I had only three butterflies (one each of SpW, MB, SmW). In the garden, however, a dozen Red Admirals were competing with honey and ivy bees to sup nectar and yesterday, two Peacocks arrived on re-flowering Buddleia!

More butterflies in the hills of Tuscany near San Gimignano on Sunday - a Two-tailed Pasha, Swallowtails, more Langs Short-tailed Blues and an orange-marked Specked Wood as typically found in S Europe.

In Tuscany this week. A visit to Pisa was rewarded by sightings of Langs Short-tailed Blue egg-laying in the Pisa Botanical Garden.

Left hand one is a fresh-looking female Silver-washed fritillary - valezina (darker) form. Butterfly Conservation 🦋

Scarlet Tiger moths are flying in Marcham, Oxon BC Upper Thames - look out for a scarlet, black and yellow-orange flash as they dance through the air. Spectacular!
Butterfly Conservation 🦋

Finding butterflies in unrecorded Oxon target squares BC Upper Thames this w/end. Highs - 12 Commas along one field hedgerow; Painted Ladies; and emerging Gatekeepers. More butterflies in sheltered spots out of breezy wind. Butterfly Conservation 🦋 Can you help fill our map?

About to head south after three weeks in Scotland. Tropical weather and good chances to record Northern Brown Argus, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Grayling, amongst other species, on the Galloway coast. Butterfly Conservation 🦋 BC Glasgow & South-West Scotland 🐛🦋