www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

OK, not sure whether I should say this here, but I would like some help. My websites very near completion and I am doing a page or so on conservation. I want people to see how to help preserve the areas and places where butterflies and moths are found. If anyone has advice that I could use, could you tell me?

I have noticed what people have been saying, that sometimes people can trample the landscape just to get a photo of a butterfly, I have done this once or twice too, and this is not a good thing. I try and be as careful as possible when looking for them, just in case I step on eggs, caters etc..

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Dave McCormick wrote:OK, not sure whether I should say this here, but I would like some help. My websites very near completion and I am doing a page or so on conservation. I want people to see how to help preserve the areas and places where butterflies and moths are found. If anyone has advice that I could use, could you tell me?

I have noticed what people have been saying, that sometimes people can trample the landscape just to get a photo of a butterfly, I have done this once or twice too, and this is not a good thing. I try and be as careful as possible when looking for them, just in case I step on eggs, caters etc..

Any ideas would be appreciated.

The 'occasional' trampling of habitats by less careful feet is as nothing compared to the Bulldozers moving in to remove complete habitats permanently.

To be meaningful, it is this that needs to be really addressed but, as has been shown time and time again over far too many years, the developers, farmers, landowners and those chasing tidy profits usually win. I have seen superb habitats managed to accomodate alien species to the detriment of native ones ~ just so they can be shot at literally when that season comes around.

Good luck with the project.

I am almost done. Should be uloaded by next week then you can see. And, some people from National Trust were spraying plants around where I seen Holly Blues and Elephant Haek-Moth caterpillars and I got them to stop it as I told them what was there. They have stopped trying to kill the plants now.

I am going to plant some wild plant seeds there in the open area in the forest where there is nothing and try and bring more life back.

When gardening in the colder months, keep an eye out when your digging up plants and shrubs. You will often find curled up catapillars at the base of plants, and you are removing their food plant.

Gruditch

I have a marvellous Swiss book with 'before' and 'after' photographs of sites - that is, before and after they are trashed by development, neglect or just cleaning up. The book gives a list of species found with each photo. The effect is very striking and it would be fantastic if you can find some pairs of pictures like this - perhaps group members have some?

One pair is of an irrigation channel before and after the farmers cleaned it up and layed concrete. The species before included dusky large blue - yet there were no species at all afterwards. Most people would not have noticed that this apparently small act of 'tidying up' was in truth environmental vandalism of the highest order.

Guy

I will go to that forest near my house and take a pic of where the place was sprayed. They have stopped it now so I am going to see if I can get wild plants put there and keep life there.

There is loads of Holly Blues there and I don't want them to go. There is loads of speckled woods, a few small coppers, elephant hawk moths and other moths and ringlets and meadow browns. GV, small and large whites too. Red admirals, small tortoiseshells and peacocks as well, and I don't want them to go from here as they have been there for years.

padfield wrote:I have a marvellous Swiss book with 'before' and 'after' photographs of sites - that is, before and after they are trashed by development, neglect or just cleaning up. The book gives a list of species found with each photo. The effect is very striking and it would be fantastic if you can find some pairs of pictures like this - perhaps group members have some?

One pair is of an irrigation channel before and after the farmers cleaned it up and layed concrete. The species before included dusky large blue - yet there were no species at all afterwards. Most people would not have noticed that this apparently small act of 'tidying up' was in truth environmental vandalism of the highest order.

Guy

I think I know the locality you have in mind. The butterfly was present there in small numbers when I visited the site with the late Peter Cribb back in August 1981. Shame if it's now no more... more gone forever!
.

Things that never happen ... No. 1 ...



(yup - that's me)

Guy

Guy,

That actually happened with a section of the A33 near Winchester, which was covered in grassland when the road was replaced by the motorway through Twyford Down:

http://www.floralocale.org/content.asp?did=23875

http://www7.caret.cam.ac.uk/twyford_intro.htm

These are old articles - do any of our Hampshire contributors know how the habitat and its butterflies are doing today?

Thanks for those articles, Matzukaze - they help kindle a little hope for the future of the British countryside and its wildlife! In the second article there is even an interesting 'before' and 'after' pair I too would love to find out how the habitat is getting on now.

I should have captioned my picture, 'Things that don't often happen'.

Guy

Cotswold Cockney wrote:I think I know the locality you have in mind. The butterfly was present there in small numbers when I visited the site with the late Peter Cribb back in August 1981. Shame if it's now no more... more gone forever!

I'll check the dates of the pictures when I get back to Switzerland, CC, and let you know.

Guy

This is a lot of good stuff. I will add some stuff like this to my website.

I have finished the page, for now, I will add more in future. Comments welcome: http://www.davesleps.110mb.com/Website/ ... s_Page.htm

I'm enjoying browsing your site, Dave. Lot of work there!

Guy