My garden in Harman's Cross near Swanage in Dorset, has had less than the usual number of species this year - just 17 so far, whereas I would normally have expected at least 24 species. I have lived here since 1984 and although we get Silver-washed Fritillary in large numbers most years in our garde...

I saw it on the TV news early this morning and the news person said it was a Tortoiseshell - Whoops! - Hope it managed to score a 147 break!

Pete, Being local to me, the date for your talk in March is already in my diary. Looking forward to it and I am sure it will be very interesting no matter what you decide to talk about. Regards, Brian

Does the photo have to have been taken in 2015 please?

A very big thank you to Neil for his help in guiding me to see the Long-tailed Blue at Southwick Basin on Wednesday. Without your help I doubt I would have seen one. Regards, Brian Arnold from Swanage, Dorset.

The weather in Swanage, Dorset was looking quite nice this afternoon, so I popped over to Ballard Down to see what was flying. I saw a Clouded Yellow (possibly more than one), Small Copper, Meadow Brown, Large White, two Peacocks, and two Speckled Woods. The Clouded Yellow was patrolling up and down...

Phil, I could not agree more - most butterfly jewelry and other mass market products are dreadful. You could always give her a National Trust tea-towel - their butterfly pictures are sometimes vaguely accurate! However as you are not married yet that might send the wrong message! I have been married...

Three of the Levana form of the Map were seen on 15th May 2015 at a point several hundred yards from the original sightings, but that was the only sighting I know of. I was away in North Wales at the time so did not see them unfortunately. I live close to the site where myself and two others found t...

A Long-tailed Blue has also been seen and photographed in Dorset on 29th August - not by me unfortunately!- See Dorset BC website Gallery page - http://www.dorsetbutterflies.com/gallery/

I my garden near Swanage on 27th July 2015 I saw this rather iridescent Meadow Brown. At first sight I assumed it was getting reflection from the flowers, but whenever it opened its wings it looked the same except when viewed sideways on when the iridescence did not show. I looked at the UK Butterfl...

I took several photos of a similar Meadow Brown in my garden near Swanage on 14th July 2015.
The butterfly did not appear to be very worn, and I also photographed the underside and the hairs are a whitish colour whereas a normal Meadow Brown has brown coloured hairs.
See attached pictures.

I was at Alners Gorse in Dorset yesterday 25th July and several of us saw this rather unusual Gatekeeper. The white bands were quite bright and very obvious when it was in flight. I have not seen anything like this before - is it a known aberration?

Hello to all of you who have posted a reply to my questions re the Lumix FZ1000. Thank you - I am most grateful for your opinions. It has given me a lot to think about and made me think twice about the FZ1000, although I am still considering both the FZ200 and FZ1000. From your comments and some exa...

Hello - I am Brian Arnold and I live in Swanage. I am new to the UK Butterflies website, but not new to butterflies. I have been chasing butterflies for 50 years and have a large collection of photographs. In the past I used an SLR (back in the days of film cameras), and now use a Canon G12 compact ...