Hazards of Butterflying

[Susie]

Some dogs just won't look where they're going.



Guy

I think he is showing you his best side, Guy.

[Sooty]

I have a few hazards to contend with here in Oz. I don't really see too many snakes, but I have nearly stepped on deadly Eastern Brown snakes a few times. I also bumped into a goanna (monitor lizard) that was as big as me. And when I go to Cairns I am very conscious of the signs warning about saltwater crocodiles.

I think the reason why I try to photograph butterflies is because they're just about the only kind of wildlife here that doesn't want to kill me

[Jack Harrison]

I saw a very peculiar sign on a path in a Nature Reserve in Singapore:

COUPLES VENTURING BEYOND THIS POINT AT NIGHT DO SO AT THEIR OWN RISK

I wasn't quite sure how that was meant to be interpreted

This was my (successful) target, the "Common Posy" Drupadia ravindra (picture taken circa 1974 and subsequently scanned from the slide)

Jack

[eccles]

I was photographing some birds in a hedge last winter having carefully sneaked up on them.
An old guy wandered up and said loudly "ARE YOU TAKIN' PICTURES OF DER BIRDS?"
I nodded and watched about half the flock disappear.
The guy couldn't put it down though and said even louder "YOU ARE! YOU'RE TAKIN' PICTURES OF DER BIRDS!"
As the last bird took flight, I just said "Well, I was...."

On the dog deterrent thing, there are two, the Dog Dazer, which apparently works, and the Dog Chaser which doesn't. I bought the latter and it has little effect on dogs or cats, probably because it isn't powerful enough. I tried it on a neighbourhood cat once about three feet away and it flinched a little when I pressed the button, so I knew it was working, but the cat didn't even bother to get up and walk away.

There was a thread about this here: http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/v ... hilit=dogs

[Susie]

Add to the list of hazards; pneumonia.

[Martin]

Add to the list of hazards; pneumonia.

You could have warned me BEFORE spending all this morning in the rain staring upward at a perched PE is a Sallow Tree!

[Susie]

Better than staring up at trees and not seeing a Purple Emperor, Martin

[Chris Pickford]

Another hazard to add are these.......(it attacked me this lunchtime while I was stalking a Chalkhill Blue).

Chris

[Susie]

MEN! To the loony who was following me about at lunchtime, if I wanted to bl**dy well talk to you, I would have started a conversation. I am sure you enjoyed having a nice chat but it wasn't much fun for me having to make excuses and walk off to somewhere else just to have you turn up again. I missed some cracking shots cos I felt like I was being stalked.

[Jack Harrison]

Don't judge all men by the behaviour of one individual.

But I would suggest that it was quite probable he was just being curious rather than being a stalker. I (we all) get funny looks when trying to photograph butterflies. Maybe you need a dog to appear "normal". Why dog walking should be considered more conventional than butterfly stalking is beyond me, but there you are. It is.

Jack

[Denise]

MEN! To the loony who was following me about at lunchtime, if I wanted to bl**dy well talk to you, I would have started a conversation. I am sure you enjoyed having a nice chat but it wasn't much fun for me having to make excuses and walk off to somewhere else just to have you turn up again. I missed some cracking shots cos I felt like I was being stalked.

When you see an undesirable heading your way, talk to yourself. A full on conversation with answers out load puts most people off as they think that you are a nutter!

Anything is worth a try eh?

Cheers
Denise

[Susie]

LOL!! Good one, Denise. I will remember that for next time.

[Annie]

I never seem to attract Nutters - am I using the wrong bait?

although I do find that Denise's suggestion of talking to oneself tends to put off those flyer giver-outers and survey-takers

[Jack Harrison]

Devils Dyke, Burwell, Cambridgeshire, has a narrow public footpath along the top of the bank with scarcely enough room for people to pass.

I was amazed and not a little put off, to see a couple lying across the path in the advanced build up to - well you know what. OK, "Blanket on the Ground" is familiar to many people, but in broad daylight in the middle of the path ......But the most amazing aspect was that the bald male was perhaps well into his 50s, and the female (I didn't stare) was grey haired of presumably similar age.

They were unaware of my approach so at about 20 metres, I uttered a cough. The male responded: "Sorry about that" to which I suggested that they could have found a more discreet spot.

I was not the only witness. I subsequently met some Wildlife Trust workers who wondered if I had some good photos that I could sell on ebay, or use to blackmail this couple who were clearly enjoying a covert affair (but not covert enough for my liking). I didn't of course take any photos.

I'm not a prude but I really felt this would be considered by most people to be unacceptable.

A more welcome observation was Chalkhill Blues in good numbers.

Jack alias "Disgusted of Cambridgeshire"

[Dave McCormick]

Last weekend I went into a field to see what was on some yellow flowers in wheat. My dad was with me and his phoe went off. Then it must have spooked this, because a buzzard came flying up and it had caught a rabbit and dropped it nearly on me! I never even seen the buzzard, scared me and would have been nasty if rabbit had have dropped on me.

[eccles]

Wow, flying rabbits in Northern Ireland. Oh well, at least you don't have any poisonouse snakes.

[Padfield]

Dave, I think this is just another of your surreal dreams.

I don't know. Flying rabbits, headless bees...

Guy

[Jack Harrison]

Recently in a scarcely-moving jam on the M1 (I was on my way between butterfly locations) a Buzzard carrying an enormous rabbit/rat/whatever laboriously flapped at quite low level across the line of vehicles. I speculated what might happen if I sounded the horn long and loud but I presumed that the driver immediately in front wouldn't necessarily understand my ornithological research.

"Bird carrying rabbit leads to road rage incident"

Jack

[Pete Eeles]

Here's an alternative outcome:

Newflash: Amateur entomologist poisoned by rat meat found in pasty.

Amateur entomologist, Jack Harrison, is back at home after recovering from a bout of food poisoning brought on by rat meat that was found in a pasty he was eating. Mr. Harrison claims that the meat is possibly the result of a buzzard dropping its lunch while flying over the M1 when Mr. Harrison, for reasons only known to him, honked his horn at the buzzard. Mr. Harrison had his sunroof open at the time with a pasty on the passenger seat. A spokesperson for the pasty company said that they did not habitually include rat meat in their produce.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

OK, I'm vegan, but surely even carnivores don't just say 'Oh great, extra protein!' when free-falling rats make splash down in the pasty on the passenger seat!! Pete, your imagination is disturbing!

The modern question, of course, is this: If Dave had indeed been hit and injured by the rabbit, who would he have sued?

Guy