Significant Update

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all,

Some of you will have seen the upload of a significant number of images from Wolfgang Wagner today. Wolfgang runs the superb http://www.pyrgus.de website and has allowed me to take those images that help us fill gaps on UKB (the upload was actually made by me using the "Proxy" account that Vince and I use to upload images from 3rd parties). Our summary page at http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species_ ... =secondary is clearly better-populated and, if we remove adventives etc., as shown at http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species_ ... pe=primary, then we have just 3 images to locate - a Queen of Spain Fritillary egg, and Scarce Tortoiseshell egg and pupa.

Wolfgang's website also inspired me to allow habitat shots on UKB - something I've been wanting to include for some time. My initial perception was that we need a whole new category of image - for specific sites. In retrospect, I think this is misinformed since most sites actually contain a number of habitats, and specialist species are only found in a small area in any given site. For example, at one of my local sites, Greenham Common, Grayling are found on the areas of bare earth, Green Hairstreak are found on Hawthorn thickets and on the carpets of Bird's-foot Trefoil when the females are ovipositing, Dingy Skipper are found on the BFT and around Bramble Thickets and Grizzled Skipper are found around the Bramble and, in particular, around areas of Wild Strawberry (one of the larval food plants). I could go on.

The point is ... please take habitat shots this season! At some point you'll get the opportunity to upload them to UKB!

And all the best for 2015!

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

Good idea, Pete.

My trip to Ewyas Harold Common last Sunday was indicative of how a particular species might only populate a small area of an otherwise vast site - new visitors could easily miss out altogether without 'local knowledge'.

I will bear your comments in mind when out in the field this summer.

[essexbuzzard]

I have been adding habitat shots for a while now-not always, but in some cases i think it puts the sightings into perspective.
I also add a few shots of flowers or whatever. I realise this is not for everyone,however.

[Wurzel]

You're welcome to use any of the habitat shots from my PD - when I first started I I featured shots from my first book which relied on various habitat shots. Neil Freeman also features some great habitat shots in his PD.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Matsukaze]

When is habitat habitat? Many of our butterflies will wander considerable distances from the places they spent their early stages; few of the butterfly species I have recorded in my garden breed here. Even for some of the rarer and supposedly less mobile habitat specialists this can be difficult to pin down. In the case of the Small Blues at Stoke Camp for example, the butterflies are most often to be found in an area of long grass that they use because it is the most sheltered spot on the reserve. The breeding grounds are not particularly near and are in fact on a completely different rock formation. At Odd Down, the Small Blues are as likely to be found perching on the nearby hawthorn scrub as on the seeded grassland.

Small Blue habitat, Odd Down

[Pete Eeles]

When is habitat habitat?

Good question! If different habitats are used for nectaring, courting (e.g. hill-topping), immature stages, roosting etc., then I think we need photos of them all - with a note to make clear what each represents.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Freeman]

.. .Neil Freeman also features some great habitat shots in his PD...Wurzel

Many thanks for the kind words Wurzel, I am glad that people find them of interest.

Cheers,

Neil

[Charles Nicol]

good idea. cjackson's excellent posts from the South of France include plenty of habitat and individual plants.