Don't breath a sigh of relief just yet..Sudden Oak Death may not be affecting our oaks but Acute Oak Decline is:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-7UL9NQ

They seem to be avoiding the buddliea here too, I have three in bloom now and not seen a butterfly on them yet, The favoured plant at the moment seems to be a patch of thistles in the chicken runs some bramble flowers, and some evil smelling Tansy. They are also going for damp ground though, a holly...

Look who popped into the garden this afternoon - a super little Holly Blue Very pleased to see this as I only ever see one or two per year in the garden.

My garden is still playing host to these guys, I found this one yesterday on the Tansy. I found a PH in almost exactly the same place on the tansy last year as well, so it obviously is a favourite plant of theirs. purplehs3july.JPG And this was on the sweetpeas in the front garden. sweetpeabrimstone...

Ahem..As the person who started the thread.... Just to say I got my answer by page 2 of this thread. i.e. yes it is legal. It was a question as I was genuinely puzzled as to how selling stock saying it was from wood walton fen was legal... I got an answer - thanks Rest assured I don't normally googl...

And when I did a google search I noted that on a web page about collectors it mentioned that someone who was an egg collector had been convicted of selling Large Blue and High brown and was convicted at Salisbury magistrates. I then noticed from the Ebay listings the seller of these current specime...

You're right of course CC and I'm sure there are many other responsible and licensed breeders out there helping our endangered species. I suppose what is missing from those for sale listings is some reassurance from the seller that the specimens are in no way taken from the wild and that they are p...

And these adverts: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320557417263 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WOOD-WHITE-PAIR-BRITISH-BUTTERFLY-/270606077909?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Collectables_AnimalCollectables_SM&hash=item3f01610fd5 How can people actually prove these are old specimens? I'm ...

The add says they are captive bred from wood-walton fen stock. I thought this would be illegal but maybe I'm wrong.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Large-Copper-larv ... 2eae5e100a

I was on the phone in the garden when I suddenly let out a yell and told my sister I would call her back... I rushed for the camera but sadly it had gone when I got back so no photo However I can report...... A White Admiral was in MY GARDEN...Whoop!!! I thought having the purple hairstreaks in our ...

Hummmm.... lots of wasps around here at the moment, and I was seeing them up in the trees, and I saw one seem to investigate one of the hairsteaks, but the hairstreak cleared off pretty rapidly, so I was not sure if it was actually after the butterfly of it was just checking it out.

My ones...(Well not exactly mine - I am just the landlady for their trees :) ) , are on both the old trees and the younger trees, and of course if they are on the younger tree an they are far closer to the ground and easier to see close up. The ones in the old oaks are right at the very top and only...

This is one I found in my back garden last year.

Yesterday I decided to do a proper check to see if I had any purple hairstreaks in the garden. Previous years I have seen one male a couple of years back and I again saw one female last year when she came down to feed on the tansy. I can happily report that our 8 oak were all sporting a few purple h...

You lot looking for me? Yooo----hoooo I'm up here ---- in this tree!!!

That's Purple Tansy. A big hit with all insects in my garden, bees go mad for it.

No great yellow bumblies around here but quite a mix of others and I spotted some other kind of bee today, like a honey bee but a bit less hairy and smaller. We have loads of hoverflies, damsel flies and some broad bodied chaser dragonflies at the moment, I usually get a few emperor dragonflies a bi...

Hi, Haven't been on here for a while but I haven't forgotten the butterflies... This spring as I already had a wildflower area, I wanted to do something different. We got rotavated and cleared a large area alongside our hedge, then seeded it with what is called a pictorial meadow. Not native but dar...

Very sad, we've been there with our old dogs. *Hugs.*

This little girl was egg laying in the flower meadow bit of the back garden yesterday...If you look really closely you can just make out those telltale blue scales that show she is a female common blue...Although it is really hard to see amongst all that brown colouration :wink: http://www.ukbutterf...