Butterflies in November!!!
Butterflies in November!!!
2 Red Admiral and a single Speckled Wood in my area this morning.
Denise
Denise
- Padfield
- Administrator
- Posts: 8182
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:19 pm
- Location: Leysin, Switzerland
- Contact:
6 species of UK butterfly still battling on today (Nov 4th) in Switzerland. I couldn't photograph the red admirals, but the rest are:
Queen of Spain fritillary...
... those two look a little world weary, but there were fresher ones too:
... adonis blue ...
... common blue ...
... wall brown ...
... and clouded yellow.
And just for interest, here's my dog next to a remarkable trompe l'oeil in Branson. The two humans, the window and even the pavement are simply painted onto the wall (look at the bottom right, next to the artist's signature if you don't believe it):
Guy
Queen of Spain fritillary...
... those two look a little world weary, but there were fresher ones too:
... adonis blue ...
... common blue ...
... wall brown ...
... and clouded yellow.
And just for interest, here's my dog next to a remarkable trompe l'oeil in Branson. The two humans, the window and even the pavement are simply painted onto the wall (look at the bottom right, next to the artist's signature if you don't believe it):
Guy
Last edited by Padfield on Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Padfield
- Administrator
- Posts: 8182
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:19 pm
- Location: Leysin, Switzerland
- Contact:
OK - next year I'm going to go to Gurnigelbad and drink a beer at the Gurnigelbad tavern and send you some piccies, Bryan! It's quite a long trip on public transport for me, but if you punch it into Google Earth you'll see it actually looks quite good for meadow/woodland butterflies. Frankly, it doesn't look the most obvious place to hunt for femmes chaudes...
Guy
PS - Sorry to sabotage your thread, Denise. It's Bryan's fault. Now let's have some more November butterflies!
Guy
PS - Sorry to sabotage your thread, Denise. It's Bryan's fault. Now let's have some more November butterflies!
- Jack Harrison
- Posts: 4635
- Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:55 pm
- Location: Nairn, Highland
- Contact:
- Jacqui Jay
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:40 pm
- Location: Nottingham
- Contact:
- Padfield
- Administrator
- Posts: 8182
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:19 pm
- Location: Leysin, Switzerland
- Contact:
This is a very good question, Jack! The Swiss literature itself is unsure, though my assumption had been that it hibernated as a chrysalis. This year, however, it seems to have been continuously brooded in the Rhône Valley. I saw my first on 3rd February and that included some very worn ones, so they had clearly been flying in January. I have seen them every month since, in good numbers. I will be checking again in December!jackharr wrote:Guy,
In what stage do the Q of Spains hibernate in Switzlerland?
I think perhaps it doesn't have a true diapause stage and just goes torpid in whatever stage it is when the cold weather comes. In 2006-7 there wasn't any cold weather so it just kept flying.
Guy
- Jack Harrison
- Posts: 4635
- Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:55 pm
- Location: Nairn, Highland
- Contact:
- Padfield
- Administrator
- Posts: 8182
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:19 pm
- Location: Leysin, Switzerland
- Contact:
I agree, Jack - it's a bit of a mystery. But the British status of Q o S has remained pretty constant over the years - "rare migrant" - so I guess there's a reason why our shores are not favourable to the species as a resident.
This picture was taken 3rd Feb this year, when all the books say no Queens of Spain should be flying anywhere in Europe (in fact, there shouldn't really be any butterflies about!):
Guy
This picture was taken 3rd Feb this year, when all the books say no Queens of Spain should be flying anywhere in Europe (in fact, there shouldn't really be any butterflies about!):
Guy
-
- Posts: 243
- Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:16 am
- Location: Harrogate
- Dave McCormick
- Posts: 2388
- Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:46 pm
- Location: Co Down, Northern Ireland
- Contact:
yesterday I saw around 17 red admirals at Mountstewart going at quite a speed most of them.
Cheers all,
My Website: My new website: http://daveslepidoptera.com/ - Last Update: 11/10/2011
My Nature videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/DynamixWarePro
My Website: My new website: http://daveslepidoptera.com/ - Last Update: 11/10/2011
My Nature videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/DynamixWarePro
This appeared in the garden this morning. It did not hang around for long, only enough time to get a quick snap.
[img]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/djfmackenz ... stone2.jpg[/img]
Dave
[img]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/djfmackenz ... stone2.jpg[/img]
Dave