Friday 27 March 2020

Cheering sight


Nothing terribly exciting or unusual here but at last my skittish butterfly visitors paused long enough for me to get these half-decent pictures.  The week of brilliantly sunny and warm days has been a tonic, especially in the context of the virus restrictions; and a reminder of how lovely our common butterflies, like the Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone and Peacock shown here, are.

Moths are another matter so long as the clear skies bring such frosty nights, but we can hope for better before long.  I hope that you and yours are meanwhile keeping safe, snug and well.

4 comments:

Edward Evans said...

Martin, do you get Oak Beauty's at your trap? For my posts see the Calderdale moth blog.

Martin Wainwright said...

Hi Edward and apols again for the delay. Thanks for tge link to the excellent Calderdale Moths and I'll add it to my list - if I can remember how! It's ages since I updated it

Yes, I get plenty of Oak Beauties here. Lovely moth! I got one in Leeds in March 2012, the Spring before we moved down here, and remember being very excited. Are they spreading in Yorks?

Btw I remember getting a lot of help from Yorks butterfly conservation in my Leeds years, people like Jax Westmorland in Scarborough and a very nice and knowledgable doctor from Ripon way called Charlie. We have terrific experts here too I'm always very impressed and grateful that they are so generous with their time and knowledge. All vb M

Edward Evans said...

They are spreading and this year was excellent for thtem in our local area I've had 3 so far. On IDs if i can't identify it is usually put it on the blog for Andrew Cockroft who organises moth nights all over Calderdale with his own moth trap who very nice and if he can't identify it I would email a picture to Dr Charles Fletcher.

Oak Beauty is widespread but not common in Yorkshire but Calderdale has a higher frequency of records than most other places.
Hope this helps

Edward

Edward Evans said...

The link is: www.calderdalemoths.blogspot.com I think