Ladies day - Dungeness May 2026

May 30th. There were none at dawn, but a couple of hours later they suddenly appeared, as if dropped en mass onto the very tip of Dungeness - Painted Lady butterflies (above). Every flowering Red Valerian plant held them and on approach they fell from the flower-heads, either onto the shingle or would circle off together, taking the short flight to the nearest source of nectar. Others did not move, busily feeding, refuelling from their cross-channel flight and getting ready for their next northward push. There were hundreds, possibly low thousands. I walked the road northwards from the lighthouses to the estate entry gate and sought out the Red Valerian - not as much as formerly found - each clump dripping with this migrant lepidoptera. It was mesmerising, these orange, black and white visitors from North Africa and the continent that had shared their arrival alongside some saharan dust and a cast of rare migrant moths. By lunchtime they had all gone, melted away. It left me feeling bereft.

The headline news belonged to the unprecedented arrival of Eastern Bordered Straws (above). Prior to this year there had been only c40 records in the UK. At the time of writing that has probably now been inflated by a further 200! When David Walker found one in an observatory MV trap (May 26th) he was quite entitled to punch the air - just the third DBO record and a bit of headline news. Social media was soon full of other people recording this species and diluting its rarity status, although it is quite possible that such an event might not be repeated any time soon and it could return to become a rare capture once more.

It wasn't the only moth to get the pulse racing, as on the very same morning Sean Clancy trapped this Fir Carpet at New Romney (left, only the fourth for Britain I believe) . It kick-started an exciting few days of migrant moths, with the observatory and local MV traps providing 6 more Eastern Bordered Straws, a Striped Hawk-moth, a Small Marbled, a Bordered Straw plus day-time Hummingbird Hawk-moths. Martin Casemore also recorded this Concolorous (below), a highly localised wainscot. 

The heat brought out the damselflies and dragonflies, most notable being the recent colonists Lesser Emperor (two patrolling the long pits and another by the water tower pits) and a number of Norfolk (Green-eyed) Hawkers across the peninsula. Hundreds of Four-spotted Chasers (below) made up the bulk of what was on offer and I must admit to largely ignoring the damselflies - my bad!