Migrants in 2010

Richard Stewart

It is only the beginning of August so perhaps my comments about it being a poor year for migrants are premature. One has however been the exception, the Silver Y moth. I first saw these, in hundreds, on the 20th July, at Winterton Dunes on the East Norfolk coast. Since then they have been evident wherever I have been looking for butterflies, and in our garden they have fed mainly on buddleia, lavender and a second flowering of valerian. They have been most active from dusk onwards and by the end of July we had seen a Hummingbird Hawkmoth six times in our garden, ranging from 9.30am to 8.50pm, visiting buddleia and valerian. Although this is a migrant there have been a few recent reports of overwintering in sheltered areas. The other fascinating aspect of this insect is

how different it looks at rest, which is admittedly not very often observed. It becomes a very drab creature with virtually all colour gone and also well camouflaged. Undoubtedly though the speed at which it feeds is one of its most impressive attributes, making it difficult to get good photos. Having a few minutes to spare on the 25th July, before we went out, I timed one visiting valerian growing in front of our French window. The time was 9.30am and I watched it closely and carefully to see how long it took to visit fifty valerian florets though it obviously didn’t feed from each Silver Y by Mervyn Crawford one. The first fifty took just thirty seconds, the next fifty took forty seconds. Just imagine the energy needed for that result and the necessity to get as much nectar as possible.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

National AGM and Members Day 20th November 2010

This year’s AGM and Members Day will take place on Saturday 20th November at Churchill College, Cambridge and will be hosted by the Cambridgeshire & Essex Branch. The programme for the day has been distributed with the Autumn issue of Butterfly. As the venue is within our region, perhaps a number of our Suffolk Branch members will be able to attend.