This page, edited by Ken Owen, is for first/notable sightings. Please email @email with date, species, number, site, grid ref, your name and any comment.

For general records, please use iRecord website or iRecord Butterflies app
More details are on our Recording Page

Facebook & Twitter have more photos:
see links on our Social Media page
Also see: National 1st sightings & Archive 2015+


Surrey Orange-tip 2023
Mar 27 Orange-tip 1 Dorking TQ165505 Jenny Desoutter

One of four Comma butterflies seen, the first photograph received, the others were noted at Wimbledon, Thornton Heath and Egham and are almost six weeks later than our first

Surrey Comma G Margetts
Mar 27 Comma 1 Headley Warren TQ191539 Gary Margetts
Surrey Camberwell Beauty A Bolton
James Herd
Mar 27 Camberwell Beauty 1 Wisley Common TQ075587 Adam Bolton
James Herd
Mar 23 Small White 1 Richmond Park TQ100741 Eleanor Hays

Following several weeks of cold grey weather, temperatures at last began to rise in the middle of the month with Brimstones seen across our area on 16th -  in Sheen, Oxshot, Blackwater and Lingfield

Mar 16 Holly Blue 1 Pirbright SU930530 Katherine Ramsay

There were numerous sightings of Brimstone on the 14th and 15th of February, for example, in Pirbright, Guildford, Dorking and Banstead

Please ensure you place all your sightings on i-record.

Surrey Brimstone Feb 23 Colin Kemp
East Horsley, 15 Feb, Colin Kemp
Feb 15 Comma 1 Rotherhithe TQ361799 Audrey Reid
Feb 14 Hummingbird Hawk Moth 1 Gatwick TQ278423 Andrew Bashford
Feb 10 Hummingbird Hawk Moth 1 Sheen TQ204746 Peter Burrows-Smith

Spring slowly makes it's approach and it is worth being on the lookout for butterflies anywhere in a sheltered sunny spot. Red Admirals, for example,  were seen (3rd Feb), two in Barnes, four in Richmond Park and one in Croydon, all in the Greater London area. The first photograph of the year came three days later, (6th Feb, Beddington Farmlands), when there were also sightings of Red Admirals in Surrey, at Wisley and Reigate.

Surrey Red Admiral Feb 2023
Beddington Farmlands, 6 Feb, Richard Thomas
Feb 3 Small Tortoiseshell 1 Richmond Park TQ194713 Steve Read
Feb 1 Peacock 1 Hill Park, Tatsfield TQ422560 Jim Yeeles
Jan 6 Red Admiral 1 Haslemere SU890327 C Mullender
Jan 6 Red Admiral 1 Redhill TQ279504 Ken Owen
Jan 5 Peacock 1 Warlingham TQ355580 Louise Kahan
Jan 5 Brimstone 1 Brambledown TQ188576 Keith Lelliott