www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

The trouble is, that air hole soon freezes over when you take the float out. The best bet by far is an air pump. I stuck, admittedly a huge air blower, on my pond when it was -10, and it made a ice free area of about 6ft x 6ft.

Regards Gruditch

Oh yes I dident think about that,
thanks Grudich.

Felix

Does anyone know what is the best time of day to see butterflies? Or you could tell me what the different time of the day is best for seeing different types?

Thanks,

Felix

Hi Felix,

The answer depends on a lot of things, including the species in question, the aspect of the site (that is, which direction it is facing or which direction it gets light from &c.) and what you want to see or do. You'll learn a lot as you get more experienced, but here are some pointers:

A westerly-facing slope is likely to get more afternoon and evening sun, whereas an easterly slope will get more morning sun.

In woods, rides get light at different times of day depending on which way they run. If you want to see pearl-bordered fritillaries feeding on bugle, for example, there's no point in going before the sun has reached the patches of bugle.

In the early morning in summer, many species can be found warming up, ready for the day. This can be a good time for photographing them. Later on, they might engage in different activities, defending territories, mating, &c. When they are warming up, they are more likely to have the wings open flat, showing the upperside. Sometimes, in the heat of the afternoon, it is very difficult to find butterflies still, with the uppersides showing.

Blues and skippers (in particular, but also other groups) will often collect at muddy puddles in good numbers some considerable distance from their breeding sites when the day is really hot. There's no point checking the puddles first thing in the morning - the heat of the afternoon is best for this.

Purple emperors (males) spend much time in late morning coming to faeces or carrion on the ground. Later in the day they disappear into the treetops and are harder to see.

Hairstreaks come down from the trees at different times of day, depending on the aspect of the site. At a particular site, they will tend to come to the same flowers at about the same time of day. Often, this is late afternoon or early evening. They do also come down in the mornings.

The longer you do this hobby, the more experience you get, and you can look at a site and guess what will be flying, and when. I've been watching butterflies for 39 years and sometimes I feel quite confident in this. At other times I suddenly discover new things and get all excited!

Guy

Sallow is a great nectar source for all kinds of things. It is supposed to be really good for moths, and at times some sallow trees appear to be humming owing to the number of queen bumblebees foraging upon them.

The Mimosa trees have been in flower for 3 weeks now, here - at least those in a sunny position. But even those in sheltered spots are in flower this week. We also have Aneamonies in flower in the garden at the mo. A lovely sunny day here today - typical, as I went back to work, so had no chance to look for butterflies.

Our garden pond is just for wildlife. In the UK our first garden pond had fish and had newts, frogs and toads breeding within the first year. However, here our pond is much bigger, but sadly very much devoid of spawn, even though it has been in place for 18 months. However, around here the noise from the Tree Frogs is deafenning every evening in summer and we even found one climbing up our patio door in the Autumn - I think they must use the ditches for breeding? They certainly haven't used our pond.

That said, we had plenty of dragonfly action last summer - Emperor for one - so I hope to do a bit of dipping this year to see if we have plenty of dragonfly lava.

I just left some of last-year's reeds to lay-over into the water - they created some spaces that didn't permanently freeze. It is funny though to see half a dozen frogs swimming around under the ice...
N
Re: Lens, Gary. A 200mm on a cropped frame with a 1.4TC = 200+80+112 = 392mm equivalent macro (?)
Doesn't loose too much with the TC; but needs good light being f4 to start with and f5.6 with TC.

well i didn't see a much awaited brimstone or red admiral today, but spring had finaly sprung today down here in the forest!

with a back ground track of drumming great spotted woodpecker and mewing buzzard, plus the gentle hum of nectaring honey bees and busy rumble of 3 queen bumble bees ( at long last ), there was also a good show of fly's around including blue a green bottle, house and drone all feeding on the now good show of snow drops, hellebores, crocus and rhodo blossoms.

on the warm south facing back wall of the house 4 female zebra jumping spider could be found hunting on the brickwork.

a beautiful day, perhaps ill see a brimstone before the week is out if im lucky!

gary.

Definitely looks like things are starting to move in the right direction!

That's a cracker of a shot of that jumping spider. I must have a go at these myself this year!

Well then I think we can all agree now that SPRING HAS OFFICIALLY SPRUNG!!!(and about time to )


Thank you for all the replies especially Padfield(Guy) for the long detailed answers to my questions so thank you very much for that and also Grudich(Gary)too .

Felix

Lovley shots Gary, like the spider head. Crocus are flowering in my garden and ramsons are growing nicley in the forest near my house, starting to smell like garlic. Its supposed to be 7-10C here tomorrow and sunny, hope that holds out on friday too, have a field trip planned with one other people to my reletives bog, setting up moth traps to see whats there and hope the evening is good enough for us to catch something. Maybe I may see a butterfly there, don't know, but a species of moth I have not seen before can fill me until a butterfly comes. Have not been to the bog since last year, so it will be good to see how it looks at the moment. Planning regualr trips there as its a great site for butterflies and moths.

In the area the common blues only seem to feed only on large birdsfoot tre-foil, I was told thats not common as they usuaully feed on birds food trefoil wich is not seem to be present here at the bog, anyway, I'll learn more when it gets warmer.

Great excitement here in Brittany today .............. we have our first ever frog spawn in our pond!

Three clumps of spawn - obviously not long been laid (do you use that verb for frog spawn?) as the tadpoles are still tiny black dots.

We put the pond in in the Autumn of 2008. I think we have a lot of dragonfly lava, judging by all the activity last summer - plenty of ovipositing (that's the correct term, at least ). Will they eat our tadpoles? Not that I mind, as I love dragonflies!

Geniculata, your photos make me happy. Beautiful!

Yes, me too they are very uplifting.

Felix

thanks guys!

for anyone that gets a kick out of depicting nature, that's the nicest reflective comments anyone can give and warms my heart!

gary.

Well it was 11C today which was nice and very sunny. Found a fully grown common frog today which was a nice find.

Elaine wrote:Great excitement here in Brittany today .............. we have our first ever frog spawn in our pond!

T

will you be able to eat the frogs when they are big enough ?

Charles

Elaine wrote:Great excitement here in Brittany today .............. we have our first ever frog spawn in our pond!

Three clumps of spawn - obviously not long been laid (do you use that verb for frog spawn?) as the tadpoles are still tiny black dots.

We put the pond in in the Autumn of 2008. I think we have a lot of dragonfly lava, judging by all the activity last summer - plenty of ovipositing (that's the correct term, at least ). Will they eat our tadpoles? Not that I mind, as I love dragonflies!

Elaine, It is true that larva of the larger dragonflies will take tadpoles, but tadpoles are as much of a danger to themselves. Whilst they start off as vegetarians, they become carnivorous as they develop and will eat dead siblings as well as taking nips out of the tails of their neighbours and this can become a problem if the pond is overcrowded. Last year my first "dollop" of frogspawn appeared on 24th February, but as of today I have nothing. In 2008 I had 150 dollops and laying was completed by 17th March. Whilst not all of the eggs hatched, it was still a bit of a problem in a pond which is only 1.8mx1.5m so I supplemented their diet with some bits of prawn to stop them taking bites out of each other. We have also had a problem here with a virus killing adult frogs over the past two years so the effects are really being felt now.

Keep us advised how yours get on.

Cheers,

Vince

Went to my local field today saw no butterflies but lots of birds and I saw two ladybirds resting on the same dead leaf in the warm sun.

Even though the sun was warm the wind was FREEZING!!

I found a sprouting onion and garlic today I am going to plant them in my garden are they any use to butterflies?


Felix

Anyone know when it is going to warm up significantly? We usually have a warm spell about now.