Sightings january 2012

[millerd]

Nick's Red Admiral looks so very fresh, I have to wonder if it might have just emerged? do we know enough about RA life cycle? It doesn't seem to have a definite period of dormancy (as eg Peacock).

Jack

To lift a post from the Sussex BC site:

Thursday 29 December 2011

A festive poke around in hamlet nettle beds up the Ouse valley yielded good numbers of overwintering Red Admiral caterpillars. Below one favourable South facing flint wall five were located in just under a metre's length, all much advanced in size compared with previous years

I think that larvae, pupae and adults have all been reported throughout the winter months in recent years. A bit like the Q of S in parts of Europe.

Dave

[Lee Hurrell]

Small White seen in London!

Remarkably, a white butterfly has just been reported to me, seen in Westbourne Grove, London W2.

From the phone photo I think it is a Small White.

I have no way of knowing but given the recent dip in temperatures I can only assume it had pupated inside somewhere and the warmth has sped up emergence.

I suppose it could have emerged in the recent double digit warm spell and have survived until today, with London being a few degrees warmer and maybe the chrysalis was in full sun. Or as a long shot, seeing as it was seen near an organic food supermarket chain, maybe the chrysalis was brought in from the field and hatched indoors. Who knows!

Anyway, Spring can't come fast enough

Cheers

Lee

[essexbuzzard]

Hi folks!
Just back from a short break to our old county of Cornwall. It is with pleasure that i can report seeing a Red Admiral at Cotehele on Monday 16 January,my first January butterfly ever! Basking in brilliant sunshine,there was still frost in the shade!
Cheers,Mark.

[felix123]

Hi all,

Saw my first sighting of the year last week! It was a Red admiral flying past weakly in the VERY strong winds!

Forgot how much I loved this site!

Felix

[Wildmoreway]

I saw a Red Admiral in Hollicombe Gardens near Paighton at about 1330 yesterday, several flies and a hoverfly also active.

[legless2007]

Beautiful Red Admiral yesterday near Cirencester, sadly no Brown Hairstreak eggs which were what we were really looking for! Still that's my first butterfly of the year.

Jo

[htcdude]

Finally got my first sighting of 2012, a lovely Red Admiral flitting around the New Forest yesterday.

Nige

[Philzoid]

Took my daughters to London Wetland Centre at Barnes for some bird-watching, a chance to try-out our Christmas cameras and meet up with Gibster and Sami . Apart from the usual wetland species highlights were seeing Stonechats (spotted by Seth) and almost getting bowled over by a low flying mute swan (worth the entrance fee alone) . Unfortunately I missed a Peregrine Falcon when I had to take my youngest Izzy to spend a penny . However, she more than made up for it when she spotted this little fellow going for a stroll in the wildside bird hide .

I'm 95% certain this is Ruby tiger but please do comment. Other unexpected insects seen were bumblebees, nectaring on Mahonia around the visitor centre.

The pictures were taken Izzy's Fuji Finepix T200 compact which turned out much better (sharper) than the ones I could manage on my Canon EOS DSLR 1100D with 18 - 55mmIS lens (the latter is 12 megapixels whereas the former is 14 megapixels). Is it that simple a correlation? Am I expecting too much from my set-up?
In fact I find the big camera much more difficult to get good close-up shots despite lots of practice at home . I expect you are all going to say I need another lens … more expense or spend more edit time at the computer . Perhaps I should've listened to the bloke in the camera shop who insisted that the best camera for me was the Fuji Finepix HS20EXR

The day after I went to Wisley's annual event of butterflies in the glasshouse. I took the compact and gave up on the idea of taking the Canon. Hope to post some pictures sometime soon.

Phil

[NickB]

The pictures were taken Izzy's Fuji Finepix T200 compact which turned out much better (sharper) than the ones I could manage on my Canon EOS DSLR 1100D with 18 - 55mmIS lens (the latter is 12 megapixels whereas the former is 14 megapixels). Is it that simple a correlation? Am I expecting too much from my set-up?
In fact I find the big camera much more difficult to get good close-up shots despite lots of practice at home
Phil

My first experiences with a DSLR were not positive; that is partly down to having to re-learn how to use the DSLR and what it can deliver in each set of circumstances compared to the compact with small lens and sensor giving great depth of field (the rest is down to my own incompetence )

I have taken good quality shots with my own 18-55mm kit lens; you just can't use it like a compact, tho' and push the camera on top of things. To get the D-o-f required you may need to step-back a little and crop the final image....Keep on trying.....it does get easier the more you do it....
Edit - most people here use Aperture priority mode on their DSLRs - that is what controls d-o-f, as well as distance from object. Using a higher aperture can often mean that the speed drops to unacceptable values; when this happens use a higher ISO (400+) to bring-up the speed or drop the Aperture to a slightly lower number.....
However, once down the DSLR route, dedicated macro lenses do give better image quality.....
N

[Jack Harrison]

If they weren’t so heavy and need several lenses, I would certainly go for a DSLR. There is no doubt that DSLRs are capable of better quality than the best compact or bridge camera.

However, a good bridge camera can produce results that are almost as good. But even so, they still take time to learn. I have had my Panasonic Lumix FZ38 for two years now and am still learning new tricks such as very high speed burst mode.

Intriguingly, when I get prints from the excellent Photo Box, the resolution always seems better than I see on my monitor (1440 x 900 pixels).

I — even a dedicated bridge camera user — say stick with your SLR, but I guess to get the very best from it will require a lot of hard work.

Jack

[Philzoid]

Thanks for the advice Nick and Jack.
I should let you know that I'm not beyond the fully auto stage yet having only ran off a few manual focus shots. The habit of getting close to shoot using the on board macro setting is one learned from using compacts. In fully Auto mode on the DSLR if I get close-to and look through the viewfinder, the camera won't focus. Moving backwards at about a foot away I get the OK in-focus beep but the pictures don't come out as sharp as the compact ones.
I can see from your advice that there's lots more to come and I sort of expected it would boil down to putting the work in to get the best out. Good things never come easy, but patience with technology has never been my strong point. Just hope I can master it in time before the season proper gets underway, otherwise Izzy's going to find out her camera's gone walkabout.

[scrumpydrinker]

Long time occasional lurker here.

Just seen a Red Admiral in the Sensory Gardens, Fulham, SW6 http://www.imperialwharf.com/index.cfm?articleID=187

Moving fast and never saw it settle.


Paul

[ChrisC]

Thanks for the advice Nick and Jack.
I should let you know that I'm not beyond the fully auto stage yet having only ran off a few manual focus shots. The habit of getting close to shoot using the on board macro setting is one learned from using compacts. In fully Auto mode on the DSLR if I get close-to and look through the viewfinder, the camera won't focus. Moving backwards at about a foot away I get the OK in-focus beep but the pictures don't come out as sharp as the compact ones.
I can see from your advice that there's lots more to come and I sort of expected it would boil down to putting the work in to get the best out. Good things never come easy, but patience with technology has never been my strong point. Just hope I can master it in time before the season proper gets underway, otherwise Izzy's going to find out her camera's gone walkabout.

Phil, if you get the chance pop along to wisley for the glass house butterflies to practice on, a bit bigger than our own species but captive subjects.

[Philzoid]

Phil, if you get the chance pop along to wisley for the glass house butterflies to practice on, a bit bigger than our own species but captive subjects.

Thanks for the advice Chris, but I've already been (last Sunday) and left the DSLR at home. Last night I spent hours (not including all the picture re-sizing / prep work) trying to do a posting of my visit (17 pictures) on the Butterflies at Wisley thread in January sightings but internet explorer keeps crashing . Have got onto Virgin Media helpline but all they have done is got me to re-boot the modem ...... don't think that is going to work I'll give it one last try. Ironically I posted this short message (a version of) last night only to find out it hadn't gone too

BTW our work place resident moth expert Paul Wheeler reckons my Ruby Tiger is in fact a Round-winged Muslin moth caterpillar. The locality (reeds and marsh tend to support this ... larva feeds on lichen and algae I'm told)

[Philzoid]

January sightings

Should read Field trips and events board .... I'm rushing to beat IE explorer crashing again

[Jack Harrison]

Philzoid

.... I'm rushing to beat IE explorer crashing again

I have had all manner and means of computer crashes but I honestly can't recall Firefox ever crashing.

Firefox is easy to download and use:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Jack (no commercial connections with Mozilla Firefox)

[David M]

Sadly, I've had it crash.

When I first got a computer 11 years ago the thing rarely crashed, yet it does so now at least once a fortnight (and I have intermittent problems with 'freezing' far more regularly than that).

I'm coming to the conclusion that less is more (i.e. rudimentary security trumps fully armed firewall 99% of the time).

[Jack Harrison]

When I first got a computer 11 years ago the thing rarely crashed, yet it does so now at least once a fortnight

It depends very much on the individual computer (and its user) — they all have personalities.

With some machines, the: Ah there, poor boy. Feeling ickky are we? can be tried, but rarely works.

Why the **** did you do that, you stupid ******** doesn't improve the health of the computer but makes the user feel very much better. This is my favoured technique. Recommended.

Jack

[NickB]

Why the **** did you do that, you stupid ******** doesn't improve the health of the computer but makes the user feel very much better. This is my favoured technique. Recommended.
Jack

...he employs the same technique with stupid people too...

[AndyR]

Speckled Wood in garden nr. Falmouth (Cornwall) on Friday 13th Jan. Nice to see that it made the front page of the Western Morning News along with a nice big picture.