Monday, 30 June 2008

Good Butterfly News

What with this sunny weather and not being at NigeCorp HQ today, I was out of the house like a shot and down to Ashtead Common to see if the butterfly situation has improved. Reader, it has, and, among much else, I saw half a dozen of these beauties and a round ten of my favourites - including one melanistic form (very exciting, if less handsome) which was feeding on a bramble flower until chased off by a Silver-washed Fritillary. I also had a very close encounter with a Purple Hairstreak, right at the end of my finger... Things, it would seem, are looking up in the butterfly world.
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4 comments:

  1. malty30 June 2008 at 21:34

    lucky man Nige, we are having a poor year for butterflies, we only ever see maybe half a dozen common species, but in abundance, we had planted a lot of buddlia some years ago, in the past three weeks we have had cool wet weather, now there are hardly any butterflies, not even Cabbage White, also this year our frog population has been decimated, a combination of Heron and late frost, this means our Barn Owls have to hunt further afield. Also absent are the Grey Wagtails, a lovely sight bobbing up and down the burn, the Long Tailed Tit tribe seems to be larger, their preferred haunt is the birch grove, the Chaffinch population was large, now decimated by the Jays, Saw a strange sight yesterday, A Kestrel caught a young Blackbird, dropped it on the track and then pursued it on foot (or claw). Don't go near the BA blog, 1966 all over again.

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  2. Nige30 June 2008 at 21:47

    Well if you've still got barn owls Malty, you've got something pretty wonderful- we lost them years ago round here. Magical birds. Grey wagtails thriving around Carshalton Ponds, more each year...

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  3. Richard Havers1 July 2008 at 07:41

    We put up a barn owl box a couple f years ago and this year we have them nesting. Last evening when we came home there was an owlet on the ground being fed.

    For pictures of them in their box go here

    http://haveringhavers.blogspot.com/2008/06/springwatch-final-frontier.html

    http://haveringhavers.blogspot.com/2008/06/springwatch-next-generation.html

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  4. Nige1 July 2008 at 12:26

    Ah brilliant Richard - that cheered me up no end...

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