2nd brood Swallowtails

[John W]

Hi, has anyone seen any 2nd brood Swallowtails in the Broads yet?
I'm thinking of visiting around the 18th / 19th of August - is this likely to be too late?
Thanks for any help,
John

[NickB]

Emerging about now, it seems...So should be OK/towards end of emergence..
http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s ... tings.aspx
N

[Liz Goodyear]

Yes 2nd brood are flying - seen flying across river at Horning whilst sailing every day last week except Thursday when it was raining. Not stopping though so might be hard to photo.

Nothing seen nectaring in brother's front garden.

Liz

[EricY]

The west path at Strumpshaw starting just past the Doctors gdn is a good place to look for 2nd brood swallowtails. there are quite a few buddlea's down there & last year on August 8th we saw about 6/7 all nectering on the buddlea. Eric

[daveboyle]

I had a great day out at Strumpshaw Fen yesterday & probably saw 6-10 Swallowtails.

[John W]

I had a great day out at Strumpshaw Fen yesterday & probably saw 6-10 Swallowtails.

That's good to hear as I'm visiting this Wednesday to Friday!

Could anyone tell me exactly where the Doctor's garden is?

Thanks
John

[daveboyle]

Apparently they're not using the Doctor's garden at the moment, or at least no second brood ones had been seen there up until yesterday.

All the ones I saw were swooping around buddleias along the river - take the path west round the reserve (you'll go past the doctor's garden anyway) & when the river appears on your right keep an eye on any buddleias. They only really appeared after midday and didn't really start landing until 3ish, and even then only usually very briefly. If you're after photos you'll need at least a 400mm lens to get decent shots

[John W]

All the ones I saw were swooping around buddleias along the river - take the path west round the reserve (you'll go past the doctor's garden anyway) & when the river appears on your right keep an eye on any buddleias. They only really appeared after midday and didn't really start landing until 3ish, and even then only usually very briefly. If you're after photos you'll need at least a 400mm lens to get decent shots

Thanks for the info. I have a Panasonic Lumix FZ38 with 18x zoom, I don't know what that translates as a lens size in mm. With a big butterfly like a Swallowtail I could stand 5 or 6 feet away and get a passable shot.

[NickB]

Could anyone tell me exactly where the Doctor's garden is?
Thanks
John

Follow the track from the road to the centre of this map...
Good luck
http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/get ... g=TG340069

[John W]

Hi, thanks for all the replies. I visited Strumpshaw Fen twice this week. The first time, on Wednesday, the weather was fairly cloudy with only a little weak sunshine from time to time, and I hardly saw a single butterfly, let alone any Swallowtails. But on Friday it was a lovely sunny day and I was soon rewarded with my first ever sightings! As daveboyle reported, they were mainly flying around the buddleia bushes by the path at the north-western side of the site. They were quite hyperactive, only settling for a second or two, and then on the top of the buddleia where it was difficult to get an unobstructed camera shot. I did manage to get a couple of pics of one individual, which sadly was very tattered.

[David M]

Interesting photos those.

I'd never associated British Swallowtails with buddleia (the continental ones can't get enough of it), but I guess most people regard ours as late spring/early summer butterflies.

[John W]

Just to say there were also several Red Admirals and a Brimstone nectaring on that buddleia (but no Peacocks or Commas).