Hi,

Whilst walking through a local park today, I came across a couple of caterpillar webs. Not sure what they are though. Could anyone please help.

Kindest Regards
Kevin

Hi everyone, I've been doing lots of planting in the garden, in readyness for attracting a host of butterflies to visit (fingers crossed!). Whilst, diggign I came across a couple of larvae that I'm unable to identify. If anyone can cast an expert eye over them, I woudl appreciate that. Additionally ...

Nigel,

Cracking shots of the Orange Tip. I always look forward to the first sighting of my favourite species each spring.
Not seen one yet, but your photos are incentive enough to keep on trying.

Regards Kev Ling

Whilst walking home from work yesterday in a very sunny Ipswich, I was greeted with the site of a dozen Small Tortoiseshells in a local park. All of them within an area of just a few square metres. It reminded me of a summers day in 2013. Also saw a Peacock and my first Comma of the year. No Brimsto...

Pete / Vince, Thanks for your replies, which were very useful to me. Vince, I love the photo of the pupa on the fence post. It was interesting to read about the predation of larvae. I had nurtured some small/large white larvae which I was hoping would pupate in the vicinity. But I haven't found any ...

The Orange Tip is my favourite butterfly and as happy as I am to watch the adults at work and play, I have made it my mission this spring to observe this species in it's earlier stages. My question is whether there are particular plants/locations that the caterpillars favour when pupating. Would thi...

David, Try the following website for starters. It contains details of a number of walks from the town. Across the spring meadows and up into the hills, you won't be short of things to see. http://uk.luchon.com/home/luchon/to-see-and-do/hiking/vallee-de-luchon.aspx This website might give you some po...

Hi everyone,

Butterfly Conservation's Richard Fox is a guest on this Sunday's Radio 4 programme"The Living World". It will air at 6:30am and will feature the Peacock. It will be available afterwards on iPlayer for those who value their lie-in.

Kind Regards
Kev Ling

Dear Wurzel & David, Thank you both very much for your replies (Wurzel, I got your private message too). This is very helpful for my planning. I'm driving from Suffolk, so one or two of the mentioned sites can certainly be used as a diversion on the way to and from my destination. Kind Regards Kev

Hi everyone and Happy New Year. I have a holiday booked in late May to the Forest of Dean. One of my target species for 2014 is the Marsh Fritillary. I'm not restricted purely to the the Forest of Dean and read with interest about good numbers at Aberbargoed Grasslands in 2013. Would anyone be able ...

Hi,

I saw a number of caterpillars during a July visit to Chamonix, France. I have been unable to identify the following four though. Any help would be appreciated.

Regards
Kev Ling

Being Suffolk based, the undoubted winners of the year for me were Small Tortoiseshells. The last time I saw them in such numbers was when I was a schoolboy (and believe me that is now a distant memory). I agree with you David, Small White numbers went through the roof too in this region. On a more ...

For those that may not be aware, BBC's Inside Out (South West Region) have featured the plight of the High Brown Fritillary on their 16th Sept edition of the show. I found this on BBC iplayer tonight. Well worth a view. (On line for next 3 days only). http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0071mt5/episode...

David/Guy,

Thanks for you help.

Regards
Kev

I know ID for this species has been a hot topic this year and I would very much appreciate some help too please. The following photos were all taken in the French Alps earlier this month. In addition to the Moorland Clouded Yellows that I saw, I was wondering what other species might be amongst the ...

Rex, Love the clouded yellow shot you took. I recently took some myself in France, using the burst mode on my camera. I waited for a CY to settle and fired away until it took flight. 40 shots later, I got a result (see part 3 of my Chamonix trip report in the overseas forum). It's a good job we are ...

Here is the last report from Chamonix. Due to a night of rain, the cloud level was a lot lower on our final day, so we did a walk in Les Bois, a wooded riverside habitat just 2km from Chamonix town centre. There were good numbers of Silver Washed Fritiallary here, including a mating pair. Mating SWF...

Next day took us to Lac Vert, at the far western end of the Chamonix valley. At 1250m, it's more meadows and forest compared to the rocky landscape thus far. Needless to say the number of species increased as a result. There were a number of different fritillaries present. First up was High Brown Fr...

Our next hike was a little more leisurely. From the small village of Le Tour, near Argentiere, we took a chairlift up to the Col De Balme, a mountainside meadow at 2100m. scenery.jpg There were fewer variety of species here than expected, but with a dense population of Bilberry, large numbers of Moo...

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Regards Kev