Discovered this site by chance a few weeks ago. As a life long enthusiast for all things Natural History, but above all the Lepidoptera of both the UK and the rest of the world, decided to join up. My interest goes back as far as WWII when as a very very small boy aged three, I watched late season Red Admirals feeding on my father's prize Dahlias in the family's East End garden. Shortly after that when hostilities ceased, a first 'safe' trip to Epping Forest was a real treat for me and many East End families. That day I saw a brillant blue Butterfly alight on a glossy very dark green Ivy leaf which emphasised the rich blue of the small butterfy's wing undersides. I got very close to it but had no idea what this little vision of beauty was. Identification books were not freely available like they are today so then for the time being, it's identity was to be a mystery. With that first 'vision' still clear in my memory even to this day, later I found out what it was .. A Holly Blue. Shortly after, a Wall Brown (Common in Walthamstow and Chingford in the 1940-50s) was seen on some flowers in my garden. I also found a fairly large completely black moth in the coal store ~ every house had those back then ~ and wrongly believed it was a Garden Tiger contaminated by coal dust ~ well I was about five then. I now know it was a black form of that sometimes common, but always beautiful moth The Garden Tiger.
It was visions and experiences like those all those years ago and ever since which effectively sewed the seeds deeply to a lifetime's love of Lepidoptera and Natural things.
When I was only nine, the family moved to Gloucester where I've lived mostly ever since, except for ten years during the 1960s when I moved to London. During the 1950s and from the 1970s onwards, I've got to know the good localities in my favourite county ...Gloucestershire. Each season, there are surprises. A wood where I saw a single male Purple Emperor as a schoolboy back in the 1950s, I've visted most seasons since and never seen it there again. I have found it sometimes in abundance in a few adjacent counties and others elsewhere but, my favourite Gloucestershire still draws a blank. I visited that wood again this July ~ even the White Admirals and Fritillaries were fewer than before but I did observe several examples of a butterfly I've never seen there before... The Wood White.
It's things like this which bring joy to the enthusiast. I was really surprised to find it there as due to much commercial afforestation, the wood is actually a shadow of it's former self but still ... good in parts.
I shall keep looking..... you never know...
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