Orange Tip pupae. Poor science as I didn't make proper notes. 2023s batch of about 31, 12 emerged (and released), 10 died and another 8 (still looking very healthy) are going to overwinter a second time. 2024 - 9 pupae At least, there is some pretence of 'science'. I am keeping the two batches separ...

I traditionally visit the Grantown site on a son's birthday, 9th July, and usually find NBA in good condition.

This year, I couldn't visit until the afternoon of 9th.

After today's (10th) rain, that is probably 'it' for 2024. It was DREICH in capitals.

Jack

Maybe ask some politicians. They seem to have a 'thing' about humans of uncertain gender.

Jack

No Northern Brown Argus seen on Monday at Grantown-on-Spey but maybe just too early. Several fritillaries charging around at vast speed, presumably Dark Green although they did look smallish so can't entirely rule out late Small Pearl Bordereds.  It can be seen from the picture of the habitat that ...

Butterflies do crop up in the most unlikely places. Some 30 years ago when I was halted in traffic on the A1 at Hatfield, Herts, there in scrub at the edge of Tesco was a Green Hairstreak. Another unusual sighting of a Greenie was while I was waiting at Craignure for the Isle of Mull to Oban ferry. ...

Forgive my ignorance of Latin but how do you pronounce 'pharte' politely?

Jack

Mothing My reduced mobility (after 79 years butterflying) means that chasing over rough ground is now impossible at age 85.  So I got my moth trap out of storage and set it up in the garden. My dear wife showed great interest in the catch (she hadn't done previously).  She tried to get moths to craw...

Probably ab "le Pen"

Jack

AI decided to submit a late entry. No PhotoShopping - honest

Jack

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czddd407eezo

Scroll down to No.7.

Call me a cynic if you like. But.....

Jack

24 June. My first Ringlets of the year up here near Nairn, north Scotland. Some 75 years ago in south England they were July - lingering into August - butterflies. Of course, global warming has been very significant but I don't think we should discount the less-polluted air these days as a factor be...

22nd June.  Large White - by no means common up here (I only see two or three a year) - spotted by my wife in the garden, who called me to look.  She is not a butterfly 'nut' but had correctly identified it.  Moreover, it was on Sage flowers, a plant that I had wanted to cut down (to encourage fresh...

I said in another post how seven of my Orange Tip pupae (from 2023 eggs) decided that 2024 isn't for them and seem to be hanging on until 2025. I had previous occasions of double hibernation with eventual emergence almost two years after being laid as eggs. Others from 2023 emerged as normal this sp...

I did a PhotoShop fiddle with the image to make the butterfly a little darker. That confirmed Common Blue, but certainly is a pale specimen.

But of course a pale subject like that butterfly against a much darker background plays hell with auto exposure.

Jack

Captive Orange Tips Eggs or caterpillars from my garden Sweet Rocket (aka Dame's Violet) in 2023. 33 caterpillars of which five failed to pupate. They were then kept in a plastic container. Over the winter, five simply vanished. Others clearly died and went mouldy Spring 2024, eight adults emerged a...

Specualation.  See my previous entry in this thread. https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=11894 Black Hairstreaks are seemingly well established in Ditchling and Epsom Commons.  Presumably these are the result of introductions (Peter Cribb?). Glapthorn Cow Pasture near Oundle, North...

Escape artist.

Orange Tip pupa on a lead to my computer monitor.

It hadn't been a very long crawl (under a metre) from the pots of Hedge Garlic and Dame's Violet on the window sill.
But I had missed it when it was a caterpillar.

Jack

I have just been reading about Relativity and Time Dilation.  Also, something today on a science website about Quantum time shifts  - very much over my head. But I thought that I might have begun to get a grasp of some of these weird concepts when I saw the thread 'June 2024' - posted on 31st May :i...

28th May. Up here, male Orange Tips still flying - very late by modern standards.

Jack

Old man's butterflying .  27th May Like many mature people, I often have a siesta.  I woke at 2.30 pm to watch an Orange Tip egg laying on the Sweet Rocket (aka Dame's Violet) just outside the bedroom.  It's not a fluke that the plants are growing there, but I had never quite expected this sort of ...