Search found 1853 matches
- Wed Feb 08, 2023 5:49 pm
- Forum: Sightings
- Topic: February 2023
- Replies: 50
- Views: 4249
Re: February 2023
When we've had very early vanessids here before, they've preferred winter-flowering heather and hebe to snowdrops, given the choice.
- Mon Feb 06, 2023 7:48 pm
- Forum: Sightings
- Topic: February 2023
- Replies: 50
- Views: 4249
Re: February 2023
Red Admiral at Rodney Stoke woods (Somerset) today. It was soon after joined by another one and they went chasing off into the woods together.
- Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:15 am
- Forum: Overseas
- Topic: Western France, September 2022
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1342
Re: Western France, September 2022
An extra species for the holiday! I am happy with that...
I note that adrasta is described as a southern/Mediterranean form, and this individual was a long way north in France. Could the form be moving northwards?
I note that adrasta is described as a southern/Mediterranean form, and this individual was a long way north in France. Could the form be moving northwards?
- Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:24 pm
- Forum: Silver-spotted Skipper
- Topic: Silver-spotted Skipper - Favourite Photo of 2022
- Replies: 8
- Views: 765
Re: Silver-spotted Skipper - Favourite Photo of 2022
The only examples I came across this year were in France, where they were feeding on a species of sunflower. It was strange to be pointing the camera up to take photos of this species as if they were hairstreaks, when in Britain they never make it above knee height.
- Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:23 pm
- Forum: Overseas
- Topic: Western France, September 2022
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1342
Re: Western France, September 2022
Thanks folks! I am really losing it if that is Large Wall - I followed it for some minutes as it flew around distractedly before it finally chose to settle, and it never occurred to me then or at any time since that it was anything other than megera - that said, both species fly together in the imme...
- Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:00 pm
- Forum: Overseas
- Topic: Western France, September 2022
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1342
Re: Western France, September 2022
Thanks Guy - not sure I'll be able to tell which species after this amount of time. We have one or other of them in the garden, as it happens, but it never gets to flower here, probably because we take too many of the leaves for cooking. Perhaps I should set aside a patch for the butterflies. The ly...
- Thu Jan 26, 2023 8:05 pm
- Forum: Personal Diaries
- Topic: Padfield
- Replies: 4406
- Views: 1143523
Re: Padfield
I was admiring much the same moon-and-planets combination from a viewpoint in the Mendips that same evening, though it was a fair bit darker there! Some of my earliest memories are from staying, aged four, at the campsite at Les Grangettes. I don't remember the birds - or the butterflies, for that m...
- Thu Jan 26, 2023 7:55 pm
- Forum: Overseas
- Topic: Western France, September 2022
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1342
Western France, September 2022
This wasn't really intended as a butterfly holiday, but I made use of the opportunities that presented themselves and saw some interesting creatures. Western Sarthe We arrived here just after the end of a particularly spectacular hot, dry summer - significantly more so even than in south-east Englan...
- Wed Jan 25, 2023 5:18 pm
- Forum: Silver-spotted Skipper
- Topic: Silver-spotted Skipper - Favourite Photo of 2022
- Replies: 8
- Views: 765
Re: Silver-spotted Skipper - Favourite Photo of 2022
Quite a scarce micro in the first picture there as well - Pyrausta nigrata.
- Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:08 am
- Forum: Overseas
- Topic: New Erebia species
- Replies: 6
- Views: 768
- Mon Jan 09, 2023 9:59 pm
- Forum: Personal Diaries
- Topic: Benjamin
- Replies: 316
- Views: 280548
Re: Benjamin
Hi Benjamin - that makes good sense - thanks!
- Mon Jan 09, 2023 1:25 pm
- Forum: Personal Diaries
- Topic: Benjamin
- Replies: 316
- Views: 280548
Re: Benjamin
I'm posting this with some trepidation here, as you know what you're talking about whereas I don't, but if you've got a hibernating PE larval population of something in the range of 50-200, surely that's too low for it to be worth birds specialising in hunting them down? Even if a single individual ...
- Mon Jan 02, 2023 7:57 pm
- Forum: Painted Lady
- Topic: Painted Lady - Favourite Photo of 2022
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1588
Re: Painted Lady - Favourite Photo of 2022
Fairly scarce in the garden this year, though this one was around unusually late, on 28 October.
- Mon Jan 02, 2023 7:50 pm
- Forum: Peacock
- Topic: Peacock - Favourite Photo of 2022
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1187
Re: Peacock - Favourite Photo of 2022
Early in the year (the first photo) and late, but not many in between. As ever, beautiful butterflies.
- Mon Jan 02, 2023 7:36 pm
- Forum: Orange-tip
- Topic: Orange-tip - Favourite Photo of 2022
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1044
Re: Orange-tip - Favourite Photo of 2022
These are mostly photos of reared adults, immediately after emergence. Larvae spring 2021, emergence mid-April 2022. They flew off and hopefully had happy adult lives.
- Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:59 am
- Forum: Sightings
- Topic: January 2023
- Replies: 28
- Views: 2834
Re: January 2023
The first bird I saw in 2023 was a Red Kite - still a rarity around here - a good start to the year!
- Tue Dec 27, 2022 10:10 pm
- Forum: Marsh Fritillary
- Topic: Marsh Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2022
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1007
Re: Marsh Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2022
Wurzel - if you're lucky, you can sometimes see Marsh Fritillary at Priddy, though I'm not sure the butterflies there are truly of wild origin. SPBF also flies there around the same time.
- Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:01 pm
- Forum: Personal Diaries
- Topic: Bugboys mission
- Replies: 4246
- Views: 1579394
- Fri Dec 23, 2022 12:13 pm
- Forum: Foodplants and Gardening
- Topic: Small White larvae
- Replies: 3
- Views: 713
Re: Small White larvae
The first of them has now pupated, attached to the ceiling of the rearing-cage.
- Fri Dec 23, 2022 12:12 pm
- Forum: Identification
- Topic: A long shot perhaps
- Replies: 3
- Views: 222
Re: A long shot perhaps
It's not a rare species, but the only one of its kind in this country. The caterpillars feed on honeysuckle, so if you have that around, they will be about.