May 2026
Single logs from this month:
This May has been the most unusual one in terms of its weather. While roughly 2/3 of May were unusually cool and too wet, the weather radically shifted towards dry and too hot conditions around pentecost, lasting until the end of the month.
Species that already were seen in March and returned:
- Aglais io
- Anthocharis cardamines
- Araschnia levana
- Gonepteryx rhamni
- Issoria lathonia
- Pieris brassicae
- Pieris napi
- Pyrgus malvae
Species making their first appearances:
- Aglais urticae
- Coenonympha pamphilus
- Colias sp.
- Cupido minimus
- Erynnis tages
- Polyommatus bellargus
- Polyommatus icarus
- Vanessa cardui
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- Pyrrhosoma nymphula
Most "first appearance" species started to appear after pentecost, whereas most March species extended their stay, particularly A. levana, which so far has only ever seen rather weak spring generations, G. rhamni, which usually disappears entirely after April, and P. brassicae, which surprisingly tends to deal much better with cooler weather conditions than the still-absent P. rapae. Colias sp. never made a spring appearance before, further highlighting the drastic weather change.
Right now the overall amount of individuals among all insects is very low, given that the usual "May decline" really turned out to be a result of nearby farmers spraying pesticides. This year every neighboring farmer decided to spray their fields on the exact same day (19 May) and so just right before the usual recovery period/start of several early-summer species around the end of the month. Currently missing species are thus expected to appear in June.
In terms of vegetation, nearly every area currently is being dominated by tall grasses, most notably common meadow grass. Only Zone II currently offers relevant nectar plants, with the few spots not hosting grasses being overtaken by Turkish wartycabbage. The latter so far has not seen any removal measures and thus is allowed to spread freely even within "Bog Hill". IF it weren't for "Mixed Field" now cultivating more alfalfa and Zone II cultivating lacy phacelia, things would look very bleak.
/oblog/