Hi Butterflyboy!

Your quest will take you to some wonderful places - I’m sure you’ll enjoy every moment!

I’m glad you’ve started a diary so we can come along for the ride………

What a fantastic experience Neil, and beautifully photographed!

I searched for caterpillars at Oversley Wood last winter, but found nothing - obviously they were there somewhere.

Hope you get lucky again when you return - you’ll surely return…….

A double haiku - must’ve been a good day!

An enjoyable read as ever Wurzel - good luck getting out to enjoy the woodland species just getting going.

It’s never wasted time Trevor - you’re just allowing the eventual reward to swell. Any time this week at Chiddingfold could produce, but the 2nd half and into the weekend looks nailed on. Good luck!

Some lovely images and accounts of your fascinating butterfly activity at home and on your trips Pauline. In terms of keeping captive reared stock in sync with the wild population (that you mentioned a while ago), I’m sure your practice of keeping them outside is perfectly sufficient. I imagine the ...

CA06E430-991C-4432-98B3-9737A5721A35.jpeg Hollis Brown was recently relocated as a fine pupa on an adjacent birch. ‘He’ of course turned out to be a ‘she’. This one was unusual for a number of reasons. She was by far my most adventurous caterpillar - spending L1-3 in the white circle, travelling up...

When I’m not in the field with PE I’m usually chest high in stinging nettles. I’m keeping a close eye on small tortoiseshells and peacocks this year, as mentioned before, and am making good progress. I don’t set out to photograph adults much, but sometimes they’re irresistible. The 30th of June was ...

Thanks Neil - yesterday (2nd) certainly felt like kick off with Knepp, Bookham, Epping and Oversley delivering first sightings - unfortunately for my prediction I hadn’t counted on Dave Cook sneaking one out in heavy cloud at Ditchling on the 29th! A pleasure to meet up Trevor, especially as I’ve be...

Fantastic reports from the Alun Valley David! If you read about my PE meddling with a degree of frustration that you’re not closer to a similar site, then I certainly fire that back at you in relation to your HBFs! Separating DGF and HBF is a delightful game reserved for foreign travel for me, but t...

Pupae season: We are now right in the middle of the pupal phase. The earliest should start to emerge this week, and the latest (in Sussex) will hold on until mid July. Further north and at later sites timings will naturally lag, but perhaps not as much as usual, with the cold spring seemingly evenin...

Hi Jon - it is, but it’s in the midlands I’m afraid.

https://www.butterflyfarm.co.uk

What a glorious swallowtail he was Paul! Most of my time with this species has been spent with the continental version hill-topping on some remote mountain in the middle of nowhere, but you’ve reminded me that seeing britannicus on a rainy day with occasional sun is a wonderfully British experience ...

Thanks Katrina - in this PD you have to wade through a lot of very similar photos of caterpillars, but every now and again something interesting pops up! Wurzel - I’m sure males of many species detect pupae one way or another but the example that always springs to my mind is that of Heliconius chari...

Cheers Dave - didn’t mean to ignore you in between those long posts! Glad you and your kids have had similar experiences - hopefully the next generation won’t lower their standards to the point of accepting, as standard, painted ladies in pots of artificial gunk! I can’t imagine the memories will be...

So why do iris pupae fluoresce? I have a theory that this is a mate location strategy. It would seem very strange that something so brilliantly camouflaged for its entire life suddenly, with the final skin shed, becomes lit up like a beacon! As usual I’m just thinking out loud about topics I don’t r...

Earlier this year Mark Youles first showed us that although Apaturinae larvae do not fluoresce under UV light, the iris pupa certainly does. I have been waiting for this period to test this for myself, and to see how useful it could be in terms of my field work. In short - it works, and it’s very us...

Thanks Katrina and David - they may be captive reared and somewhat spoiled by my pen, but they are still stunningly beautiful and a pleasure to be around. I released a batch at a local nettle patch and for once they hung around - watching chases of 6 or 7 males takes me back to some of the very best...

That Upper Beeding site makes for some unusual butterflying indeed! I can’t remember how I ended up there a few years ago, or if I was even at the site (quite possible - the occasional fence doesn’t normally keep me from good looking habitat), or merely on a public footpath that runs close by, but I...

Super stuff David - nothing quite like setting off at a crazy hour in the morning while the rest of the country sleeps. You wouldn’t want to do it every day, but once or twice a season for something special mixes things up nicely!

Wurzel wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 7:42 pm But I prefer the Hai ku

Ah - that’s what they are! Excellent.

Great adder encounters Wurzel - I see far fewer than I should - something to do with stomping around trying to fit in far more than I have time for!