www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Michaeljf wrote: But hey-ho. I don't have smoking or drinking to give up!

Sadly, I do, so perhaps this explains why I am bereft of funds come the end of August!

I'd like to spend time searching for Welsh Large Heaths too - Hare's Tail Cotton Grass is prevalent much further south of this butterfly's known range. I also sometimes wonder whether the under-recorded highland areas could harbour hitherto unknown colonies of High Brown & Marsh Fritillaries, and I'd like to invest some energy looking for Brown Hairstreaks beyond the eastern margins of their current range. Trouble is, ideal days to do such things are few and far between.

I am currently working on some wildlife videos and one thing I don't have is videos of butterflies (well only a few) so need to get a lot more. I also am missing some species in NI that I would like to find. Next year I want to focus mainly on:

1. Filming butterflies, their habitats and their behaviour, try and get as much species as I can.

2. Photograph a marsh fritillary (only saw one once and that was a fast flying blur)

3. Photograph a Dark Green and Silver-Washed Fritillaries. The latter I have yet to see the other, I only have a few bad photos of and need better ones.

4. Photograph and film cryptic wood whites. Have a couple of bad shots from a couple of years ago of some, but would like much better ones.

5. Wall Brown and Grayling is also on my list, the latter I have not seen for years, and have no photographs of any of the two, wall brown I'd love to see.

6. The only other two I have not seen are Purple Hairstreak and Dingy Skipper but given the distance I'd have to go to find them, not yet sure if that is possible, but will see nearer the time.

7. Going to do a review of the butterflies that are found on my relatives bog and what plants exist there. Also want to calculate the number of small heath here since I believe there is a large population of them, over past few years I have monitored them and not seen any decline in numbers, so far I estimate around 100-300 in a 4 acre area of cutover bog (normally see over 150 in a hour of searching, most of them probably not the same individual).

I have already posted on this thread but I have been refining and reconsidering my "resolutions for 2012", so here is version 2

To visit new sites relatively local to me to see and photograph Lulworth Skipper, Wood White and Purple Emperor and revisit sites from last year to try and see the same species again

To visit further afield for either Black Hairstreak or/and Heath Fritillary

To find some new places to visit near to Aberaeron and Aberystwyth (so I can get some butterfly watching in when I visit the in-laws)

To keep up my "Way Home" stops without getting found out by the missus sshhhh

To meet up with other UK Butterfly members

To do more reading to really start to get to know the species that I'm seeing (patterns of inheritance, evolutionary relationships, behaviours etc)

To somehow find the money to buy some decent glass

To just get out there more

And finally to try and find and drink a "butterfly" beer (I've had Black Sheep, Fursty Ferret, Badger Best, Speckled Hen, Old Thumper etc)!

Have a goodun Wurzel

Dave McCormick wrote: Photograph a marsh fritillary (only saw one once and that was a fast flying blur)

Surprised at that, Dave. For me, Marsh Fritillaries are one of the more docile and easy to approach butterflies (particularly when compared to other species of Fritillary )

Wurzel wrote:And finally to try and find and drink a "butterfly" beer (I've had Black Sheep, Fursty Ferret, Badger Best, Speckled Hen, Old Thumper etc)!

Here are some examples, two of which were produced during 2011:
http://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/site/?page_id=938

It looks like you're out of luck for 2012, unless moths are also allowed and you can wait until June.

Sadly, I can't vouch for any of them myself.

Paul

David M wrote:

Dave McCormick wrote: Photograph a marsh fritillary (only saw one once and that was a fast flying blur)

Surprised at that, Dave. For me, Marsh Fritillaries are one of the more docile and easy to approach butterflies (particularly when compared to other species of Fritillary )

Where I saw it, there wasn't any flowers about, it was flying around the edge of a large bog, that is probably why I didn't get a chance at photographing it, no reason for it to sit when there was no flowers around for it to feed on.

Wurzel wrote:...And finally to try and find and drink a "butterfly" beer (I've had Black Sheep, Fursty Ferret, Badger Best, Speckled Hen, Old Thumper etc)!

Is St Austell Breweries' "Clouded Yellow" still being made? It has disappeared from the supermarket shelves and the brewery is rather a long way to travel.

Or you could try Olde Skipper:



http://www.yourround.co.uk/Brewer/Dougl ... e/IM2.aspx

Guy

padfield wrote:Or you could try Olde Skipper:

Okells? That's a Manx beer. I'll have to have a look for that when I'm next over to visit my mother.

I guess the 'Skipper' is one of the nautical variety.

Michaeljf wrote:I don't have smoking to give up!

Nor do I anymore!

3 months now, so that's something I now don't need to do in 2012!

I just have to get Large Blue and Lulworth Skipper next year, then I have the complete set

2011 was my first full season of butterflying, I took a few photos at the back end of 2010 with an old compact camera but bought a second hand lumix FZ38 last winter and started my first 'proper' attempts this spring.

I managed to photograph 41 species this year, all within a radius of about one and a half hours drive from my house in the West Midlands. This means that I still have loads of potential 'must dos' left to try for next year

Only a couple of weeks and the days will be starting to draw out again and we can look forward to Spring

Cheers,

Neil F.

Whilst you are all chasing round the country after butterflies I shall continue to let them come to me. In March I start on another 3 or 4 acres of of my neighbour's woodland, thinning and trying to get light into the understory. After my attempts to run wild flower seed round the edge of the game covers and persuading the game keeper to give one patch over to flower and a wild bird seed mix, the owner has said that there are to be 10-20 yard wide wild flower borders round all the game covers, and the wild bird/insect patch is to be doubled in size next year.
As to butterflies that came this year, I recorded the first Dingy and Grizzled Skippers in my field and two Purple Emperors in a glade we had thinned last spring. We had vast numbers of Meadow Browns and my report to the County Recorder had him hot footing down here to tell me that I was grossly underestimating the numbers, so we settled on 3,000 in a 7 acre meadow.
I reckon that after a couple of months hard graft as soon as the shooting season is over will be handsomely re-paid by hours of wandering round the land counting butterflies in the summer.

nfreem wrote: Only a couple of weeks and the days will be starting to draw out again and we can look forward to Spring

I'm thinking along those lines myself. The season is but 3 months away now and I can't wait. Last year we had an abnormally cold November/December yet thus far November has been balmy and December hasn't exactly been freezing. Conditions then have been totally contrasting and it will be interesting to see what effect that has on early 2012 adult butterflies.

nfreem wrote:Only a couple of weeks and the days will be starting to draw out again and we can look forward to Spring

The first winter milestone has just passed; December 13th was the date of the earliest sunset. So although the days are still shortening, the sun is now starting to set later.

It's not much of a milestone, I admit, but it helps me to convince myself that spring's not too far off.

Paul

David M wrote:

Michaeljf wrote: But hey-ho. I don't have smoking or drinking to give up!

Sadly, I do, so perhaps this explains why I am bereft of funds come the end of August!

I'd like to spend time searching for Welsh Large Heaths too - Hare's Tail Cotton Grass is prevalent much further south of this butterfly's known range. I also sometimes wonder whether the under-recorded highland areas could harbour hitherto unknown colonies of High Brown & Marsh Fritillaries, and I'd like to invest some energy looking for Brown Hairstreaks beyond the eastern margins of their current range. Trouble is, ideal days to do such things are few and far between.

The real prize in that neck of the woods must be semiargus, which probably survived there longer than anywhere else, though finding it must be vanishingly unlikely.

There are old records of the Purple Emperor from mid-Wales, and I have occasionally wondered if it might still exist in such a sparsely populated area.

Matsukaze wrote:
The real prize in that neck of the woods must be semiargus, which probably survived there longer than anywhere else, though finding it must be vanishingly unlikely.

Can't see that being even remotely likely (though it's a lovely thought).

Parts of Wales are sparsely populated and have had precious little interference from man over the past few decades. Add to that its relatively southerly location (on a par with East Anglia) and I genuinely believe there are areas which may well provide habitat for some of our rarer species. Of course, that presupposes that such species had colonies there in the first place, but we know High Browns/Pearl Bordereds and SSBs once thrived there, so who's to say they've vanished completely?

Oh to win the lottery and spend an entire carefree summer just wandering around!

For DavidM and Wurzel, Large Heath can be found ( in small numbers ) at Cors Caron NR, also known as Tregaron Bog. Probably the most reliable southerly site. Park in the car park, take the path at the left hand side of the car park and then follow the boardwalk out onto the bog. I saw one on 25 July 2010 ( I almost missed their flight period ) and at least 4 on 26 June 2011. Plus enough different dragonflies/damselflies to make me resolve to improve my identification skills of Odonata.

To those who are responsible for the upkeep of this website, and all those who contribute, a very happy Christmas and lets hope 2012 is a fantastic year for UK butterflies. I`m off shopping now in a vain effort to quell last minute panic !

Jenks.

jenks wrote:For DavidM and Wurzel, Large Heath can be found ( in small numbers ) at Cors Caron NR, also known as Tregaron Bog. Probably the most reliable southerly site.

Looks like the most southerly site full stop.

Thanks for the info, Jenks. Hopefully we'll get a warm, sunny day sometime in mid-June so I can check this out.