www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Jealous yes, but you don't get scenes like this.

Whooper and Tundra (aka Bewick's) Swans, Welney, Norfolk, yesterday 17th December.

Jack

Back home for Christmas:


Sundown at Nacton


My parents at Nacton in the early evening light


Intimations of immortality as glimpsed from the Tesco car park

"THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light..."

Guy

Very fitting - lovely light.
Even Tesco's car-park can look good..very Turneresque
I was overlooking the Humber estuary from the Wolds in the golden hour on Boxing Day and that looked fabulous too. (But I deliberately left my camera behind...)
Enjoy Suffolk; have fun for New Year.
N

Love the pictures Guy but there is a danger of this thread becoming "Turner sunsets". These two yesterday at Heacham, west Norfolk.


Jack

Jack Harrison wrote:there is a danger of this thread becoming "Turner sunsets"

Nice photos, Jack. May I suggest that, if you had panned to the left a bit, you could have got the ship in, which, I think, makes a better composition.
Mike

You got me there for a moment

I don't cheat as much as Joseph Mallord William Turner. Goodness, how Mr.Turner would have loved PhotoShop had he been born some 200+ years later.

I am not a great connoisseur of art but do enjoy these sort of comments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fighti ... accuracies

Jack

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all readers of this thread!

Today was the only day this week with sun forecast so I took a peaceful walk in the vineyards of the Rhône Valley while the New Year skiers thronged the slopes. It was indeed sunny - until about midday, anyway - but cold, and any hopes of the odd clouded yellow or red admiral flying were quickly dashed.







This green lizard (Lacerta bilineata) popped out in the late morning for a mid-winter snack. He might have found something - a few flies were on the wing.



He was about a foot long and quite fat - so I guess he's seen a few winters and knows what to do. Having seen the forecast, I think he should go straight back to bed.

For a little lep interest, here are a couple of brown hairstreak eggs:





I didn't find any purple hairstreak eggs at all, but nor did I spend long looking because I needed to get back for the early afternoon (and it had clouded over and become bitterly cold).

Guy

Hi Guy,

So you went out and found some Brown Hairstreaks eggs of your own. Are Brown Hairstreaks common in your neck of the woods?

Love the Lizard, such a beautiful colour.

Also love the picture of the snow covered mountain, i`m just mesmerized by such scenery. The first time i flew over the alps they were engulfed with cloud two weeks later on my flight home, not a cloud in sight, wonderful.

Nick

Are lizards normally active in the snow, Guy?

Hideandseek: Brown hairstreaks are widespread in my part of Switzerland but at low density. It is far easier to find eggs than adults!

In answer to David's question: as a rule I only go down to the valley in winter on days when wall-to-wall sun is forecast and I think there is a chance of butterflies flying. For this reason I get a very selective taste of the cold season. On such days I do usually see a lizard or two - not actually in the snow but on the vineyard slopes and in the walls where local hotspots can build up. The fat chap today was in good health and when he realised I was interested in him scampered back into a hole in the wall.

Guy

We had the same violent storms this week as you did in the UK, closing roads and bringing trees down, so today I took a walk to the local woods to see how Aurelian had fared.

There had been some casualties - this is a sycamore:



But I'm happy to report Aurelian's sallow had survived intact and his young, flexible home-branch was undamaged:





Dating him from the time his egg was laid he is now five months old. At time of laying his statistical chances of surviving to adulthood would have been about 1%. Now, with just 6 months left to go, and about half of that time in winter, when not a lot happens in the woods, I think his odds have dramatically improved!

On the way home I checked some low oak branches and found this purple hairstreak egg:





There is a miniature purple hairstreak caterpillar curled up in there!

There is one, tiny patch of blackthorn in my village, which so far as I can discover is the only blackthorn in the region for at least a 5km radius and probably much more. It is the sprawling patch by the fence here:



For the third consecutive season I found that a wandering brown hairstreak female had laid on it. Here are two different eggs:





If they hatch, they are much better placed for me to get good larva shots than in any previous years.

Guy

Great shots, Guy. Look forward to some action when they hatch.

N

Excellent observations and photos Guy

This all bodes well for the coming season.

Vince

Thanks, Nick and Vince. As you both know, there's still plenty of lep-watching to be done in winter, if you're prepared to stand for hours in the cold staring at bare branches!!

It's probably worthwhile people checking fallen oak branches (or trees) after the UK storms to see if any purple hairstreak eggs can be salvaged before it all gets tidied up, chopped and burnt.

Guy

The snow in the Alps is as perfect as it ever gets. I had a gap in lessons in the middle of the day today so put on my skating skis and went for my first spin of the year.

Away from the town you could believe you were in Narnia:







Here's a couple of minutes of skating along the Col de la Croix road. I was holding the camera in my right hand and poling with the left, so its a bit shaky in places.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LkA0IbzxqQ[/video]

No butterflies.

Guy

Excellent images, Guy.

That's a fair speed you're doing there.

Yes - No doubt you ski as you ride your bike, Guy...
I see the natives were scattering at the end in the narrow bit, at the sight of Guy hurtling towards them, camera in hand...
N

I was being sensible there, and controlling my speed. Skating skis are very light, without edges, and the snow surface was rutted and deformed from snowshoes, walkers, skiddoos and dogs, so there was a risk of an embarrassing wipe out, camera in hand, if I took it too fast! But they are a very efficient way of getting around. I used to do a 36km mountain circuit, beginning and ending at the same place, in under two hours. AND you don't have to spend hundreds of francs on a ski pass...

Guy

Very impressed Guy.

But a suggestion for next time. Get someone else to do the filming while you ski: pole in your left hand, beer in the right. That would complete almost the image I have of you. The missing bit? Your ski suit would have E = mc² on the front and π on the back.

Jack

You flatter me, Jack!

Just one correction: An observer would see E = mc² on the front and π on the back...

Guy