Mnay thanks for your friendly comments, Paul, Wurzel, and David.

I've now transferred the rest of my natural history website to http://www.botanicdesign.co.uk/Natural% ... y/home.htm but it needs a lot of updating. Another indoor task for the winter

Mike

Until very recently, I have had a small natural history website, hosted by BT. Unfortunately, BT have now ceased offing free website hosting, so I have had to move selected pages to a different location. You can now find my 'Butterflies' pages at http://www.botanicdesign.co.uk/Butterflies/butterfl.h...

Perhaps it's not a very good butterfly photo but it reminds me of a splendid day in my Niece's wild garden, where the flowers always attract many species, including Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, and Ringlets.
Mike

This is a shot that brings back memories of a splendid holiday on the Isles of Scilly. Whereas much of the mainland was apparently submerged under the rainfall, the islands were enjoying plenty of sunshine. My photo is from a day spent visiting the sub-tropical gardens on Tresco. It was taken from t...

I was very pleased to find this early Comma, basking in the sunshine on the warm sandstone cliffs of Dry Sandford Pit, in Cothill, Oxon.
Mike

It was a cool and breezy day when I visited Bald Hill, at the western end of the Aston Rowant reserve, on 8th August, with the principal aim of finding Frog Orchids (successful). Butterflies seemed few and far between but I eventually spotted a few Chalkhill Blues, hunkered down against the wind. I ...

My photographic year got off to a bad start when I had a fall which, although leaving myself almost undamaged, managed to write off my Olympus E-M1 Mk.ii camera. Fortunately, it was covered by insurance but I had to start the butterfly year with my fall-back camera, an Olympus E-M5, which had been m...

According to the BBC - see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50206382 - Public Health England (PHE) says it has confirmed cases of tick-borne encephalitis virus in ticks from two parts of England - Thetford Forest and an area on the Hampshire-Dorset border. PHE says the risk to people is still "...

A Rose by any other name .... I think it is wise to keep the same domain name. After that, i don't feel strongly about it. I suspect many of us simply refer to it as UKB. I also suspect that European and other overseas butterflies probably get as much coverage as irish ones in the forums. The site i...

Great account of the courtship (or lack of it!) and pairing of those Small Skippers, Wurzel. :) The undersides of the two are noticeably different in shade, too and as neither seems worn this could be a very useful distinction when you can't see an upperside. I am wary of judging shade differences ...

Prophesy, Jack

A wonderful series of posts since you decided to break your 'hibernation', Pauline. I also see that my prediction from 13th Sep., that you would show LTB photos, has come to pass

Mike

I'm pleased to see that you do not stick too firmly to arbitrary rules, Pauline. If you stay around, you might find some Long-tailed Blues next

Mike

Gosh, end of your season already :o A wonderful series of fascinating posts illustrated with splendid photographs. I loved your 'collection' of wing patterns. While I've not seen much that I felt worthy of reporting - apart from the Scilly sub-species - I have enjoyed following various diaries and p...

A wonderful day, Goldie, and beautifully recorded

Mike

Congratulations on your shots of the Hummingbird Hawk, Goldie. It's a species I've never managed to photograph, although I've tried many times. I think it's great that, while you are limited in your own movements, these wonderful insects are coming to find you

Mike

He looks quite dusky...is this a feature of Scottish Large Whites? Don't think so. Most likely camera setting and/or Paint Shop Pro and/orthe dull weather when photographed. I think 'auto white balance' has made a mess of things here, having been confused by all that green foliage. The result is th...

Thank you so much, how lovely. There were hundreds! It seems that we are currently in a phase of mass migration. It would be interesting to know where you saw them and did they seem to be flying through or were they settled?. In previous years, I have watched them flying Northwards over the Oxfords...

Your joy at being back in the mountains come through vividly, Guy.

Yours looks darker than an obliterae that I photographed in Fermyn Wood in 2010 but the white bands are not completely absent, as in nigrina. I'd suggest it's obliterata as described at http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/aberrati ... es=camilla

An interesting and unusual find