Congratulations Trev. Nice taras. Nice shot. That'll be your butterfly of the year then .
Best Wishes, Neil
May 2012
- Trev Sawyer
- Stock Contributor
- Posts: 847
- Joined: Sun May 07, 2006 8:37 am
- Location: Cambridgeshire
Re: May 2012
Thanks guys...
Yes Neil... A couple of shots you took in Sussex and a conversation we had at one of the UKButts photo days really fired me up and I've wanted to see one ever since. Tried unsuccessfully last year and began to think I'd missed my chance again this year, so I was delighted to find one in such good condition. Grizzled Skippers have always been my favourite butterfly and the beautiful taras aberration is a real jewel of an insect. Once seen, never forgotten.
Trev
Yes Neil... A couple of shots you took in Sussex and a conversation we had at one of the UKButts photo days really fired me up and I've wanted to see one ever since. Tried unsuccessfully last year and began to think I'd missed my chance again this year, so I was delighted to find one in such good condition. Grizzled Skippers have always been my favourite butterfly and the beautiful taras aberration is a real jewel of an insect. Once seen, never forgotten.
Trev
Re: May 2012
Haugh Woods, Herefordshire. Pleasant few hours yesterday strolling around this lovely mature woodland, it has Butterfly Walking Trails that have been created by virtue of Forest Enterprise and Butterfly Conservation working closely together for the good of both Lepidoptera and commercial timber interests. The woods is reknown for it's Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Wood White and I was rather surprised to find that the latter species seemed to outnumber the P-b Fs, I've never seen such good numbers of Wood White at Haugh before, that's not to say that the Frits were low in numbers, they were well represented, which is most encouraging after our dire spring.
As noticed by others around the country Speckled Wood were rather noticable by their absence, only 6 seen, normally the woods have them in their many dozens, a weird year then for our Speckleds. I saw a rather nice collection of six Greater Butterfly Orchid, it really is worth reading up on this lovely orchids relationship with our butterflies and moths.
If there is a more beautifully coloured spider than the green Micrommata virescens then I hav'nt yet seen it, they enjoy low vegeteation in damp places, and this one kept retreating under the leaf until I gently tickled it with a bit of grass stalk and it then quickly re-appeared (sneaky is best ). My original ID was the green variant of Misumena vatia I'm most grateful to ChrisC for pointing out my silly mistake (tap on the wrist - must not rush ID's )
I can highly recommend a visit to Haugh Woods, it's how all our woods should be treated, and right now it's at it's very best.
Bill
As noticed by others around the country Speckled Wood were rather noticable by their absence, only 6 seen, normally the woods have them in their many dozens, a weird year then for our Speckleds. I saw a rather nice collection of six Greater Butterfly Orchid, it really is worth reading up on this lovely orchids relationship with our butterflies and moths.
If there is a more beautifully coloured spider than the green Micrommata virescens then I hav'nt yet seen it, they enjoy low vegeteation in damp places, and this one kept retreating under the leaf until I gently tickled it with a bit of grass stalk and it then quickly re-appeared (sneaky is best ). My original ID was the green variant of Misumena vatia I'm most grateful to ChrisC for pointing out my silly mistake (tap on the wrist - must not rush ID's )
I can highly recommend a visit to Haugh Woods, it's how all our woods should be treated, and right now it's at it's very best.
Bill
Last edited by Willrow on Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Why not visit my website at http://www.dragonfly-days.co.uk
Re: May 2012
Lovely pictures and the spider is a fabulous colour
Re: May 2012
i think your spider could actually be micrommata virescens. one on my wish list
a vey jealous
Chris
a vey jealous
Chris
Re: May 2012
My original post is now edited, many thanks Chris, very well spotted
Bill
Bill
Why not visit my website at http://www.dragonfly-days.co.uk