September 2008

[Jack Harrison]

Our fig is on a soutwest facing wall of the house. Thye ripen fine but my wife is the only one of six in this houshold who likes them. I would get rid of it if I had my way but I need to preserve the peace......

The Maltese butterfly list. I haven't Googled yet but any quick pointers? I seem to recall that there aren't many species not found in Britain but there is Lang's Long Tailed Blue and a Pumilo Skipper (can't remember which species). Some British rarities such as Bath White are quite common there. I found Large Whites right through the so-called winter.

Jack

[Pete Eeles]

I have a copy of "The Butterflies of the Maltese Islands" by Anthony Valletta, FRES, given to me by the author when I met him (and studied his extensive collection) back in the early 80s when my sister migrated to Malta to marry a Malteser (she always did like chocolate) ... I met Anthony through my brother-in-law's family, who no doubt wondered why anyone would be interested in butterflies! Surely I should be more interested in birds (the feathered variety) and fishing!

Anyway - the book is, no doubt, massively out of date, but I could transcribe the relevant pieces. Or send it to you for you to look at - so long as you send it back!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

There's a checklist here, though I don't think it's complete:

http://schoolnet.gov.mt/butterflies/res ... slands.pdf

I was interested to find this page because the pictures of Bath white and Lang's short-tailed are extracted from my own pages (quite old pictures!!)! I probably gave permission some time in the past ... Not.

Never mind - I have better pictures of Bath white now, though!

Guy

[eccles]

Had a morning visit to Hazelbury today in the hope of catching a late adonis blue or painted lady. No such luck on either unfortunately but saw a few silver Y moths, three/four small tortoiseshells, large and small white, speckled wood and a single worn female meadow brown. Also seen was a flock of around 50 goldfinches with a good mix of juveniles and a male and female pheasant. Road works seemingly everywhere were a pain.

[Matsukaze]

A Red Admiral and a couple of Commas seen today nectaring on ivy at Ham Green near Bristol - the Commas were the first I have seen in over a month and the first of the autumn generation I have seen so far this year. I came across another later in the day some miles away. Has their emergence this year been particularly late?

Bristolians note - there is plenty of large hedgerow elm alongside the cycle track up from the Avon towards Ham Green (approx ST533757) which is presumably what the Commas were breeding on. It looks a good place for White-letter Hairstreak next summer.

[Tony Moore]

Or in the winter, for eggs, once the leaf is off. (I found 20+ eggs around Stafford Castle last winter and, in 15 years of walking the area, have never seen an adult!!).

[Matsukaze]

I have yet to pick up the knack (it is not for lack of trying).

[Jack Harrison]

Thanks for info about Anthony Valletta's book. I too knew Tony and would usual call on him. It was he who asked me to give that talk to the naturalists. I have his book somewhere in the house but where? But as you say, very out of date now. Doubtless, habitats have changed. Lang's was found in a public garden living on and swarming around some lovely old Plumbago bushes, but I simply can't recall the name of the place. I think it began with a B (but so do lots of places in Malta). It might have been something like Birkhara.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

Found it - the Butterflies of the Maltese Islands. I knew it was somewhere in the house.

Jack

[Simon C]

A Red Admiral and a couple of Commas seen today nectaring on ivy at Ham Green near Bristol - the Commas were the first I have seen in over a month and the first of the autumn generation I have seen so far this year. I came across another later in the day some miles away. Has their emergence this year been particularly late?

Hi Chris,

I have seen commas around the buddlejas (buddleias?) near the old golf course quarry every week since mid July. There have normally been one or two, with a peak count of five, whenever I have passed by, which is a couple of times a week. The flowers are coming to an end now but there is plenty of ivy around for them to move on to .

Simon

[Tony Moore]

I have yet to pick up the knack (it is not for lack of trying).

Hi Matsukase,

You gotta believe!! I spent half an hour looking on a bit of English Elm last year, without much hope of success, due to its position. To my surprise, I finally found an egg! As an experiment, I went back over the branches that I had already examined. Miraculously, three more eggs had been laid in the interim!!!

Tony M.

[Jack Harrison]

Interesting comparison between September circa 1954 and September 2008. Photos taken by me.

Jack

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[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
In order to get some relief from the stress of moving house (itself a minor miracle at the moment!), I took a walk on Cissbury Ring yesterday afternoon. This will be my closest venue once I've completed the move. Still some relatively fresh Adonis on the wing, including this female. Lots of Comma, Red Admiral, Whites, the odd Chalkhill and more than 30 Small Copper. A few yummy Parasol mushrooms too.
Neil

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[Dave McCormick]

A few red admirals and tortoiseshells about here, but I have a cold and can't really go out to look, even on a great day like today. Sucks I get cold and weather turns good for once. Oh well, I'll keep a check for what comes into my garden. I saw a female common darter dragonfly flying around my garden yesterday, it was flying about for ages, think eating the flies and other flying bugs around here:



there is a lot of flying bugs around here at this time of year as you can see.

[Susie]

Hundreds of large and small whites along the seafront between the pier and brighton marina today. One red admiral too.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Just been out on my local Downs and found lots of Comma and a few Small Tortoiseshell. The late summer/autumn 'pre-hibernator' butterflies always seem a lot easier to approach and photograph. Of course they have no interest in finding mates and procreating, it's just a case of 'feed, feed, feed'. Five 'third brood' Wall at Mill Hill, Shoreham.
Neil

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[Jack Harrison]

Didn't leave the garden today 20th September.

Tortosieshell, Peacock (had gone indoors and was released), Red Admiral, Comma, Large and Small Whites, Speckled Wood.

Underwings can be just as attractive. Canon A650.

jack

[bugmadmark]

Hi all. What a great w/end for butterflies so far. Whilst the baby is asleep I thought I'd share the pictures my 9 year old (Jack) caught on his Fuji camera yesterday. I've 'messed' around in P/shop to crop and sharpen a bit - but lots to learn on best technique - so will ask for advice on this in the photo forum. These are some of Jacks first ever bug photos and I think he'd really like to know what people think of them. I attempted a few on the Canonn 400D but will need to check out if any good once camera battery recharged! At least I got to try out the monopod I bought. The nice thing about the butterflies yesterday was that all they wanted to do was feed so Jack could get his camera right up close. The Red Admiral and Whites however preferred being at the tops of the Buddleias.

After all the discussions of declining Tortoiseshells we were pleased to say we saw around 30 yesterday feeding on remaining buddleia flowers and on the dark pink Ice Plant/Sedum flowers which filled someones front walled gardens in our Village. There were also a couple of Commas, 1 Red Admiral and lots of Large/Small Whites but no Peacocks. Whilst photographing these, a couple of friends stopped as they drove by and said they'd just counted over 100 Tortoiseshells on the other side of the Village - so that was really good to hear! Anyway, here are Jacks images - I hope I have the pixel dimensions right...

tortoiseshell sedum cropped sharp 7pct 1-5 256.jpg (254.44 KiB) Viewed 880 times

Tortoishell sedum cropped sharp 70pct 1-5px 750px 256.jpg (252.38 KiB) Viewed 877 times

Comma ed sharp 70pt 1-5pxl 750pxl wide 256.jpg (228.46 KiB) Viewed 875 times

Comma 2 sedum cropped 750 256.jpg (241.23 KiB) Viewed 872 times

Waiting for dinner

garden spider 1 750pxl 256.jpg (232.56 KiB) Viewed 868 times

[Eris]

Petworth.

Saw a wonderful fresh but very very small comma at the garden centre yesterday. It kept settling on the red foliage of the roses.

Today to my surprise I saw a meadow brown in the field, I hadn't seen any of these for well over a 10 days, and thought they were all gone.
Some small whites, Also two Red Admirals and what might have been a small tortoiseshell but it just flitted over the hedge and out of sight before I could be sure.

But not a single painted lady yet, this time last year I had loads. but not this year:(

[Susie]

Tell Jack from me that his photographs are absolutely smashing!