Esther2444

[Esther2444]

I've always loved butterflies, and have a keen interest in nature photography, although am very much an amateur. I don't particularly go hunting for wildlife to take photos of, but I do like to snap the visitors to my garden in Bristol and the things I see whilst on holiday with my children.
I wanted to start this diary as a way to record the butterflies I have photographed. We recently renovated our house and as part of this we redeveloped the back garden and created a wildlife garden in front of our house, with a focus on pollinators. The increased activity, particularly the butterflies, has been impressive, and I'm so pleased about this. I can't wait to take part in this year's butterfly count!
I use a variety of cameras, including my iPhone, a Panasonic DMC-LX100 and a Sony DSLR with Macro lens. I find I use the DSLR less and less, mostly due to the size of it, but am hoping to get back to using it more at some point.

Today I took some snaps with my Panasonic, and managed to capture a small tortoiseshell and a comma that were feeding on the buddleia this morning. There were also a healthy bee contingent tucking in.

Looking forward to sharing my pics, and looking through everyone else's diaires too.

[Pauline]

Welcome Esther and well done on creating the butterfly garden. Looking forward to seeing more shots

[Wurzel]

Welcome Esther A great way to start your PD, looking forward to the next installment

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Hi Esther. A warm welcome to UKB where you will find many with a similar outlook as yours.

Feel free to keep the images coming!

[essexbuzzard]

A warm welcome from me too. We are a friendly bunch, so feel free to ask any questions or for advice if you want to. There is usually someone on here who can help!

[ernie f]

Hi, Esther. Let me add my welcome too.
You've made a great start with that nice angle on the Comma.

[bugboy]

Cripes, another newbie! There's been quite a few join up this season. Welcome to the friendliest bunch of people on the interweb

[Andrew555]

Welcome Ester, your garden sounds great, well done.

[Esther2444]

It was a much cloudier and changeable day in Bristol yesterday and threatened rain for most of the day, which eventually realised about 4pm. There are so many whites about at the moment, although not many are coming to rest in my garden, although I did manage to just about snap one on the breezy buddleia.

Taken with my compact.

Unfortunately someone walked past as I tried to get a picture of the meadow brown that I spotted in my front garden, and it flitted off somewhere. I did spot a plume moth when taking a tent down in the garden so used my iPhone to capture it. The quality of the picture is not great but it's a sweet little feathery moth.

[Wurzel]

Nice Moff Esther - is it a White or Spotted White Plume Moth?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Esther2444]

I think it’s a white plume, but not 100% sure as my field guide is macro moths only, so this micro moth is only described very briefly in a small subsection.

[Esther2444]

The wildlife garden that I have created at the front of my house is really starting to become established now. Yesterday my mum made a flippant comment about the nasturtiums I've grown from seed. "You need to be careful with those, they'll be crawling with caterpillars if you don't cover them." she said. I had to laugh because of course that is kind of the point! So this morning, whilst the sun was directly on the plants I went to have a look. I was so pleased to see that there were eggs and caterpillars over quite a few of the leaves. I'll admit that I don't know much about this part of the life cycle of the white butterflies that I've seen frequenting these plants, so I quickly looked this up. In conclusion the eggs in groups are the large white and the single eggs the small. I snapped both with my Sony DSLR and macro lens. It was a bit breezy but finally managed to get a steady picture of the things I observed.

[trevor]

And a warm welcome from me Esther
It will be good to recieve reports from the Bristol area,
we don't seem to get many from around there.

Good hunting,
Trevor.

[Old Wolf]

Welcome Esther from one newbie to another

I look forward to seeing what visitors you get. I always think it is exiting when a new vistor arrives.

[David M]

I absolutely agree regarding your nasturtiums, Esther. They will be highly attractive to Large White females and as such you will likely find them overrun with caterpillars.

If that is the point of you planting them then so much the better!

[trevor]

Yes, your lovely nasturtiums will soon look like lace curtains.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Esther and welcome from me too.

Looking forward to seeing what you get in your garden.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Esther2444]

I absolutely agree regarding your nasturtiums, Esther. They will be highly attractive to Large White females and as such you will likely find them overrun with caterpillars.

If that is the point of you planting them then so much the better!

Hi David, yes it was the point. As much as possible I've put plants in for pollinators, particularly butterflies, and have also installed a small wildlife pond. I'm so chuffed that it's already providing habitat for wildlife

[Esther2444]

Thank you to everyone who has welcomed me here, and taken the time to comment! Very nice of you all. Lots of the posts on here have fantastic shots of such a variety of butterflies. I'm sure my humble little Bristol patch will soon becoming a little repetitive in comparison!

This morning I intended to do a little weeding but the sun was glorious and I got totally distracted by butterflies, so only thought it was fitting that I do my first 15 minute butterfly count, on launch day.
I initially thought it was going to be a full house of whites, but suddenly next to me a speckled wood landed on the ground. It flew off as I grabbed my camera and I thought I had missed it, but then spotted it basking on the grape vine. Snapped a couple with my compact and then tried to get a good macro but unfortunately one wing was swinging in and out of focus.

These are the best shots. The first with my DSLR and the second with my compact.

I took a really good look at the massive white buddleia that we have, and just as I was considering chopping it down, because we never get any butterflies on it, a comma came to say hello. He was a bit worse for wear, but took some time to feed on the white flowers, then flit over to the more popular dark purple bush, and back again. I snapped a few pics with my compact.

I'm also pretty sure I saw a silver washed fritillary swooping about - but never really got my eyes fully on it so didn't include it in my count.

[Wurzel]

"I took a really good look at the massive white buddleia that we have, and just as I was considering chopping it down, because we never get any butterflies on it," that's a sure fire way to get butterflies to appear Esther Love the last shot

Have a goodun

Wurzel