Paul Wetton

[Susie]

Really lovely shots, Paul.

[Paul Wetton]

Thanks Susie.
I need to get out in the countryside a bit more.
Roll on holidays, 5 weeks and counting. Hurrah.

[John W]

Hello to John who started the thread on Wrecclesham. Thanks for the information posted here and good to meet you at the site.

Hi Paul, nice to meet you too - I presume you were the chap with the tripod and other serious photographic equipment. When you said you'd been to Goring I thought you meant Goring on the Sussex coast, near Worthing!

[Paul Wetton]

Hi John. Yep that was me with the gear and no just Goring in Oxon on the Thames.

Just wanted to post these photos from the weekend and say a huge thanks to Kath Robson for helping me up in Silverdale.

A great weekend for orchids and my Mum found and photographed Wall Brown in a quarry in the Peak District in Derbyshire. Unfortunately I missed it.

Here's a few orchid shots.

Common Twayblade

Fly Orchid

Fly Orchid

Frog Orchid

Frog Orchid

Lady's Slipper Orchid

Thanks again to Kath and the two Daves who passed on information to me regarding the Lady's Slippers.

[Paul Wetton]

Thought I'd post some photos from last weekend as the weather is naff at the moment.
I went to Sherwood Forest and Gamston & Eaton Woods in Notts initially trying to find Clearwing moths using pheromones but no luck.
Here's some photos of what we did find.

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

Greater Butterfly Orchid

Greater Butterfly Orchid

Herb Paris

Scorpion Fly female

Robber Fly

Robber Fly

Just to show I still have an interest in butterflies here's my first Ringlet of the year.

Ringlet

[Michaeljf]

Hi Paul,
Lovely photographs, but especially nice to see the orchids. I bet you have to do some travelling for those. I know very little about orchids, but I'm betting those are all either pretty rare or grow in very specialised spots. Or both.
Michael

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Michael

All of the Orchids pictured above were photographed in Debyshire (Frog, Fly and Twayblade) or Nottinghamshire (Bee and Greater Butterfly) except for the Lady's Slipper Orchid. For this one I asked for help in finding it as there is one on Silverdale Golf Course in Cumbria plus a re-introduction scheme at Gait Barrows in that area.
We found Common Spotted Orchids locally plus Southern Marsh. Northern Marsh were found (well one) at Gait Barrows and Early Marsh at Castor Hanglands which is in Cambs I think. We tried Barnack Hills & Holes (Great name) for Man Orchid but the site is way too dry this year and there were only some early Fragrant Orchids plus Knapweed Broomrape (not an orchid but interesting and parasitic on Knapweed). This site is being hit hard by human use. I guess mainly local dog walkers and kids on bikes etc but not sure what effect it will have on the butterfly populations including the Chalkhill Blue there. Only saw Common Blue and Small Heath during our 3 hour visit.
The Monkey Orchids and Lady x MonkeyOrchid Hybrids were further afield in Oxon but we went to Goring for the Club-tailed Dragonflies and the orchid site is within walking distance.
Have a great holiday and no doubt we'll be in contact after our return from the Alps.

[Paul Wetton]

I'm adding my trip report from Switzerland to my Personal Diary as I've not placed much on here this year.

Due to the large amount of photos and lengthy text I've added it to my website with a link here, as it would have taken forever to upload it onto both websites.

Please have a look at the following link:

http://www.ibirdz.co.uk/switzerland2011.html

Thanks for looking.

[Gibster]

You saw HOW MANY SPECIES...and pics of WALLCREEPER?????? I'm very very (yes, VERY) jealous!!!!

Good hit, mate. Impressive write up (and he got Nutcrackers too...sigh... )

Gibster (who's never been to Central Europe...yet!)

[Mark Colvin]

145 species AND you "would love to re-visit the area in spring to find some of the earlier flying butterflies"!

Just how many butterfly species are there in Switzerland?

Great trip report.

Keep up the good work.

Kind regards. Mark

[David M]

Have read your trip report, Paul.

Excellent stuff and some superb photography.

[Paul Wetton]

Thanks for the comments folks.

You'd love it out there. Yep Seth, Wallcreeper has been my bogey bird for a few years now. I've looked for it at several places but this year, hit the jackpot. They're absolute beauts.

Have a look at Guys website for species of butterflies in Switzerland at http://www.guypadfield.com/ plus the rest of Europe as well. There's loads out there.

Well seriously folks, the scenery is breath taking, the birds are bang on Seth, not loads, but quality birds and butterflies are everywhere. Even the plants are pretty special and I'm not even a real plant person.

[Gibster]

and I'm not even a real plant person

What, you mean you're some sort of fake plastic tree? (Sorry, but Radiohead are AWESOME!!!)

I seriously need to get my arse up some mountains someday soon. I need ALL the specialities - Alpine Chough, Alpine Accentor, Lammergeier, Snowfinch, Citril Finch, Wallcreeper, Hazelhen, Nutcracker, Eagle Owl. I think that's all though, lol.

And the sheer number of lookalikee butterfly species is massively daunting. Dozens of Erebia and Pyrgus and all those assorted blues. Not forgetting the Clouded Yellows, fritillaries and Graylings... I don't think I'm ready for that lot just yet! Maybe start somewhere easier. Like Iceland. Or Madeira.

Cheers for whetting the appetite though!

Gibster.

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Gibster

You could actually do that list of birds in Switzerland plus Black Woody and Pygmy Owl, maybe even Tengmalms Owl as well but further east for that one. I've never seen the two Owls or Hazelhen. I've seen Citril Finch in the Val d'Herens before, just not this year but we spent more time hunting down butterflies rather than birds. Had to get Wallcreeper though.

Mountains are just awesome any way.

All the best from the fake plastic fish tank plant.

[Gibster]

Pygmy and Tengmalm's too huh? Seems like me and central Europe have a long overdue date together. Managed Black Woody already, but Grey-headed eluded me in France. Hmmmm... rich hunting grounds by the sound of it. I think Picos d'Europa may be a more sensible starting point - got most of the birds I've still to see but probably a more limited diversity of scary type butterflies? Plus I could get the boat there and hopefully claw back Risso's Dolphin (Sam found one for herself in Aug whilst heading Penzance to Scilly...and has the pics to prove it. Grrrrr.)

Cheers matey,

Seth.

Picos has wolves too! Sam stayed there for a week and had Alpine Chough flocks AND heard wolves howling at night. So that's THREE species she's got up on me Dammit, lol.

[Paul Wetton]

I was thinking of the Picos myself at some point. Wolves would be great to see or even hear.

I reckon there'll still be plenty of difficult to ID butterflies over in Spain. You could possibly fit in a trip for Dupont's Lark in Spain. I visited an area a few years ago that had Duponts, Thekla, Crested, Short-toed, Skylark, Wood Lark and Calandra Lark along the same stretch of road. A seven Lark day not bad.

[Gibster]

That reminds me of a car bumper-sticker that was popular in the early 90s..."Twitchers do it for a Lark"

Need Dupont's too. They're slowly spreading westwards/northwards but I doubt they'd ever make it to Picos! Apart from Marbled Teal, Ruppell's Vulture, Moustached Warbler and a few odd weavers/waxbills I think that pretty much sums up my mainland Spanish birding hitlist, not including the couple of dodgy Lesser Flamingos. Oh, and Andulasian Hemipode (yeah riiiiight!)

Gibster.

[Paul Wetton]

There's a few on that list I've not seen. Did get bald Ibis and Long-legged Buzzard when I was in Extremadura but that was sheer luck.

Rupell's I've never seen (the warbler yeah but not the vulture) and the Button Quail would be a tricky one.

It's possible to get a guide in the south who no doubt knows where these things are.

[Vince Massimo]

Great report and photos Paul, with a nice mix of scarey species and landscapes . I particularly like the way you interspersed the report with wide-screen and panoramic views. I would have been content to just look at the landscape shots but, aside from those, my favourite images were the female Scarce Copper (day 13) and the Marmots on days 11 and 19.............. Not forgetting the Mountain Fritillaries of course.

Cheers,
Vince

[Michaeljf]

Hi Paul,
the photographs are simply fabulous - looks like the trip of a lifetime to me . As Vince said, the landscapes are simply gorgeous and probably some of my favourite images on there, though all of the photographs are of a superb quality (the Fritillaries on the ground is particularly lovely: I like the use of the wideangle cropping for some of the butterfly shots too).

The fact that you went out for 3 weeks (give or take) was obviously a big bonus, plus the knowledge and help from Guy. I look forward to seeing the DVD - though no doubt it will just make me even more envious (the green-eyed monster always appears when I see such a great trip). I don't know how many of the photos are yours and how many are Helens, but you should consider producing a Blurb book of the images even if you do it just for yourself.

I'll have a closer look tonight, as there's so many great images to see .

Michael