Hello David, Yes, that's Common Pug. The start of its flight period has been creeping forwards over recent years but even now it still wouldn't be expected until early April, so a January record is something quite extraordinary. This one has presumably been confused into emergence by the unseasonably warm temperatures of the past couple of days. Looking at the on-line Atlas, there have been occasional oddities like this in the past but your sighting is still a week earlier than the previous earliest for our area (6 Feb 2014).
Hello David,
ReplyDeleteYes, that's Common Pug. The start of its flight period has been creeping forwards over recent years but even now it still wouldn't be expected until early April, so a January record is something quite extraordinary. This one has presumably been confused into emergence by the unseasonably warm temperatures of the past couple of days. Looking at the on-line Atlas, there have been occasional oddities like this in the past but your sighting is still a week earlier than the previous earliest for our area (6 Feb 2014).