To Explore, Enjoy and Enhance

Friends of Studham Common

The Common looked wonderful in the sunshine today (29th May). The hay meadows, especially on Middle Common, were ablaze with buttercups, red clover and ox-eye daisies. On East Common there are some bright clumps of bird’s-foot trefoil, a foodplant for the caterpillars of the Common Blue butterfly.  The Green-winged orchids had a good year with 41 spikes counted, the most so far.

Last month we reported seeing a Painted Lady butterfly on 20th April on East Common. This must have been a real ‘turbo-charged’ individual. The main influx didn’t arrive until a month or more later.  The last 10 days of May have seen the arrival of vast numbers, probably totalling many millions for the country as a whole.  We missed seeing the spectacular numbers but an experienced observer counted 1847 in an hour flying north-west across a 250 metre stretch in east Bedfordshire, including 487 in 5 minutes “almost too many to count”. The new arrivals included some rather faded butterflies which have flown all the way from North Africa and fresh-looking ones that would have been the offspring of other North African ones that bred in southern Europe. The main foodplants of the caterpillars are thistles which should be well chewed by August.  Another migrant butterfly which has been seen elsewhere, though in much smaller numbers, is the Clouded Yellow, a rich yellow butterfly with black borders to the wings; unfortunately it never rests with its wings open. If these migrant species breed successfully we should have an interesting summer.

See May’s Nature Notes

The Chilterns, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - website:

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The East Common Blossoms

Studham Common in
Early Summer Sunshine

Painted Lady Butterfly

Clouded Yellow Butterfly

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