Just to demonstrate my skill with a camera can the experts tell me which of the Orange Underwings this might be :oops: Photographing this moth proves that auto focus on a Canon disturbs them, I could gain the focus automatically but as soon as I committed the exposure this moth was up and away and i...

P.J.Underwood wrote:First orange tip seen in Hambledon,Surrey today.

Bet that was the one I saw heading north from my garden on 23rd. Three miles in five days?

I found this chap fluttering against the window of the potting shed. Doesn't seem to be in bad condition for a hibernator.
He was really pleased to be released and spent about 10 minutes in the sun before flying off.

Absolutely nothing on my sallows except bees of all shapes and sizes.

A Small Tortoiseshell, a Red Admiral and an Orange Tip today in my garden. The latter had me running after it, I only saw the white and thought it might be a moth until it did a U turn and came past me - it was on a mission.

I think that Wych Elm has to be well on its way to maturity before it could attract a WLH, since they live in the tree canopy. I have an English elm that has regrown from a sucker and it took 16 years before it even flowered. How about something like a Buddleja davidii which will flower this year an...

The discussion elsewhere on this forum about old butterfly collections brings to mind another problem which I had been meaning to address this winter, but never gained the enthusiasm to get round to it. My local museum has at least three collections hidden away, these are uncatalogued, so no-one kno...

Susie wrote:

JohnR wrote:I guess the site owner is trying to fathom out how to get rid of it.

Might take a while, that's a hard one

It depends on the dosage prescribed for the virus

There was an unwanted pop-up ad for little blue pills, this was removed and then it reappeared in another form last week. I guess the site owner is trying to fathom out how to get rid of it.

All these apps seem to be designed for the iPod/Pad. This is outright discrimination against Android users, we may be in a minority but our needs for butterfly and wildlife apps are just the same as Apple users. There should be a law against such discrimination, I'll complain to Brussels.

Went into my greenhouse today to take some voucher photographs of moths from last night's trap only to find a rather nice Peacock sitting on top of my microscope. I couldn't get a decent photo of him as I only had a 2" depth of field on my macro lens (extension tubes - before you ask). He is no...

If you want to lash out on a book Chris Manley's British Moths and Butterflies: a photographic guide, is in print and currently (2011) has the best photos of a number of micro moths.

Whilst you are all chasing round the country after butterflies I shall continue to let them come to me. In March I start on another 3 or 4 acres of of my neighbour's woodland, thinning and trying to get light into the understory. After my attempts to run wild flower seed round the edge of the game c...

If you could unscrew the sign and post it to me because I have a black and tan that lives up to its colouring and tries to savage me at almost every opportunity.

Talking of bad journalism the Telegraph website tonight had a headline Prince William spearheads rescue for stricken Russian sailors He co-piloted an RAF helicopter which winched two men to safety amid the debris of their cargo ship, the Swanland, in the early hours of Sunday morning. Now when is a ...

For so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts; Where some, like magistrates, correct at home, Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad, Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upo...

We've been busy "behind the scenes" (one of the reasons that some of us have been rather quiet of late) and one item to surface is a set of member and moderator "rules". These are almost complete and, once done, will be put into effect. Cheers, - Pete Not rules, please, no rules...

I have to say that it may be several years. Domestic apples are grafted onto rootstock as are the hybrid crab apples. Trees grown from seed have little predictability. The so called crab apple whips that went into my shelter belt took about 5 years to flower and then they turned out to have been ope...

I find that I can't use Canon autofocus with butterflies in the field but I can with moths under a macro lens when taking voucher photos!

The Butterfly count aside,I am wondering what has happened to all the large whites this year.It can't be because of the weather,as I hardly saw any in the first part of the year,when the weather was good.Are too many chemicals now being used in gardens and on their food plants? P.J.U. Here their la...