Big Butterfly Count coming soon

Regular readers will know that I enjoy seeing and photographing the butterflies that come through my garden and around my local patch.  with the much warmer weather at least, butterflies are coming out in quite big numbers now.

The Butterfly Conservation  are interested to hear from you about your sightings, and in the same way that the RSPB do their Big Garden Bird Count each year so it is with butterflies also.  Unlike the BGBC, with butterflies you have a two week window starting this weekend.  Details can be found here so you can either do it in your garden or at other locations.

It would be great if a good number of our readers in the UK could also do this and if so, we would like to hear of your results.

I will be doing mine through the garden so will let you know in due course.

Great book for butterfly ID can be found below and should be a must have in all wildlife enthusiats reference library.

Martin

Day Trip - Butterfly Site, Prestbury Hill, Gloucestershire

As I write this blog on Thursday evening for Fridays post, the Swifts are flashing by my window, screaming as they chase each other.  Wonderful sight.

Last week, Jac and I went down to a site in Gloucestershire that is managed by the Butterfly Conservation site.  The forecast wasn't brilliant and being a south west facing hill was exposed to the strong breeze.  This made getting top quality images difficult and I was happy enough under the circumstances to get some record images of a few species that I had not seen before.

Given the conditions, all these images are handheld, and as such in a number of cases the depth of field has suffered with not enough as I tried to make sure I had a fast enough shutter speed.

 An early 5 Spot Burnet

 Brown Argus

 Tatty Duke of Burgundy

 Same again on a cow pat......nice!

 Green Hairstreak

 Common Forester Moth

 Peppered Moth

 Mother Shipton Moth

 Small Blue (f)

 Small Blue (m)

 Small Heath

Wood Tiger Moth

The new  butterfly species for me were Brown Argus, Duke of Burgundy and Small Blue.  I shall get back to this site when the weather is a little kinder and see if I can get some better images.

Martin

Big Butterfly Count - update

Back in August I posted my results from the Big Butterfly Count.  Well if you had reported your results you would have received an email back from the Butterfly Conservation people with the results of that count.

Looks like the Gatekeeper has come out tops across much of the UK.  This link will give the top ten species across the English regions so you can check out your areas in you are UK based.For the West Midlands, that pretty much mirrors my findings, although I was glad to get the Holly Blues when I did my count.

If you want to read more about the count, you can see the details here.

Don't forget to put your clocks back tonight if you are UK based - an extra hour in bed for you tonight.

Martin

Humming Bird Hawk Moths

....and Painted Ladys are subject to a migrant watch by the Butterfly Conservation Group.   They are after reported sightings of either of these two migrants.  Report your sightings here.

I saw one Humming bird Hawk Moth a few days ago nectaring from the Hydrangea at the front of my house, and saw another two nights back nectaring from a hanging basket outside a pub in the centre of Stratford upon Avon, while I was sipping my own black nectar.

So I have now recorded two.  Just a shame I wasn't able to photograph them.

Let us know if you see either species and record them.

Update: Added hyperlink for recording sight

Martin

Big Butterfly Count

So did you do yours this week?

I did and got the following.

Five Large White
Three Small White
One Green Veined White
Four Peacock
Two Small tortoiseshell
Two Holly Blue
One Speckled Wood


I only took one image during the count of the Speckled Wood which had settled on some of the drying hay/wildflower cuttings in the garden.

I also got some better results with the moth trap last night so will be back with some images from that later in the week

Martin

Butterfly Week and a bit of catch up

In my last post I mentioned it was Big Butterfly Count Week.  Well by way of linking to that post and also catching up with some of the images I took back in June, I thought I would share these with you for a little inspiration for you to get out there and join in the count.....well maybe.

Meadow Brown

Male Common Blue

Marbled White

Copulating 5 spot Burnet moths with exuvia

Copulating 5 Spot Burnet Moths on Common Spotted orchid

All with 5D and Canon 180 macro, handheld or supported on bean bag on the late evening sunlight at a location about three miles from my home in Warwickshire

Martin

News - A Billion Painted Ladies

Just a quick update tonight, on yet another miserable wet day in the UK.

The photo forums are full of Painted Lady images at the moment.

Why is that?

Well it seems that it has been a bumper year. I posted a few images earlier in the year here and as recently as this weekend here.

Here is the reason for so many as posted by Wildlife Extra News - so know you know.

Not withstanding this success, numbers of butterflies are generally declining so how about doing your bit to support Butterfly Conservation here. Check out the events page for things in your patch and why not let us know what you have been up to.

Martin

Trip Report - Warwickshire Butterfly Conservation Site, Ryton

As I mentioned on my Sunday post, I went to an event run by Warwickshire Butterfly Conservation Trust. I managed a few images from the day, not always the best or the easiest, and some were taken for identification purposes for me, as I am not familiar with this part of wildlife photography and am keen to learn, identify and understand the subjects.

Report from the event posted here

Silver Y

Click Beetle Oedemera nobilis

Mother Shipton

Dingy Skipper

Grizzled Skipper

Small Heath

Small Heath

Dingy Skipper

Martin

Local Patch - My garden, Warwickshire

Well having travelled over 1200 miles when I went to Mull last week, I though it was time to reduce the personal carbon footprint a little, although getting over 50mpg from my EU4 diesel engine I may forgiven for being a little smug. Anyway, I have spent a fair bit of time doing some garden maintenance as I had let it go a bit, but it was remarkable just how much life there is out there now.

Overhead the swifts are screaming, and while cutting back some growth yesterday I heard the distinctive 'cronk' of a Raven, there are plenty of Small White butterflies coming through and I saw my first Green Veined White in the garden yesterday.

The tadpoles are going crazy, forming up in large shoals in the shallows warming themselves. There are at least three newts, Common I think, but will check soon.

On the bug front, there are masses of Hoverflies, many bee species, Green Shield Bug, large Red and also Blue Damselflies now in.

The first picture shows the mass of Ox Eye daisies that have sprung up. This particular patch was supposed to be quite short in height but is over a metre high now, but looks fabulous in a breeze as it sways. There are also a number of fabulous blue Cornflowers coming through as well, as per the second image.

The final three were of a very obliging frog that came up to say hello. I was surprised how yellow its markings are. There are at least three like this with the rest being the usual much darker green/brown colour.

Finally, I had a brilliant day out today with the Warwickshire branch of the Butterfly Conservation Trust, and met some great people. Thanks to Mike, Keith and Val for making me welcome - the site is brilliant, I saw 18 species, including a number of first for me. The food was brilliant to so thanks again. I will post some images from that trip later in the week.

Martin

News - Butterfly Conservation

A short while ago I mentioned the Butterfly Conservation group and the fact they have groups across the counties.

I have been recording my garden and local patch sightings on their online reporting tool.

As Warwickshire is my county I will be going along to this event at the weekend, weather permitting.

Check out your own counties for events as now and for the next few months is the season for would be butterfly photographers. There are also sub sites covering the rest of the UK and some parts of Europe as well.

Martin