The Lincolnshire Bird Club

16 Oct 2011
At least 18 red admirals feeding on fallen over-ripe pears at Knaith Hall near Gainsborough.
Presumably some/all of these are migrants taking into account other postings on this forum.

Cheers
Brian

3 Red Admirals feeding on Ivy in a sheltered, sunny area at Market Rasen at 9a.m. today. The temperature in the shade was 4C!

Brian,

As Graham Catley indicated in his post of 15th October, there is a large scale southerly migration of Red Admirals occurring at the moment. This movement can start in late August/early September in some cool summers but with an Indian summer such as we had this year, mid-October is the norm with the recent drop in temperature being the trigger.

Large numbers will now be building up on the UK south coast with the butterflies nectaring full-time ( ie without mating) in fine weather so as to build up resources before crossing the Channel and heading S to central and southern Europe.....in a journey, with appropriate breaks, that the literature tells us probably takes two to three weeks.

A most remarkable butterfly and a truly magnificent flying machine.

Freddy

Whilst working on an offshore survey to the west of the Isle of Wight, over the period 29th September to 2nd October, we had large numbers of Red Admirals flying south over the Channel.

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Regards,

Andy.

The mind boggles at the volume of Red Admirals that must be involved in this southerly migration from late September ( " large numbers" in Andy's post) and which is still continuing past mid October.

An entomologist on one October day, admittedly many years ago, actually counted up to ten Red Admirals to the square yard stretching across a mile of Sussex downland, each nectaring full-time before crossing the Channel.

Freddy

I wonder if any have been seen at MSQ. Last year I recorded dozens on one day.

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GETTING OLD HAS IT'S ADVANTAGES BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE lol

I know it's not Lincs but I had a single Red Admiral yesterday morning, flying south across the channel about 15 miles out from Poole.

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Regards,

Andy.

Single Red Admiral in my garden, Skeg on 241111

Nige