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Post by nomad on Oct 21, 2013 23:06:39 GMT -8
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Post by nomad on Oct 21, 2013 23:10:41 GMT -8
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2013 0:32:08 GMT -8
Fantastic boxes and abs, when I was young Lasiommata megera was everywhere, I could see hundreds in my area, now I have not seen one around my way in over 20 years, the only ones have been at the coast, Flamboro head and Portland. Coenonympha pamphilus had its best year ever around here this summer and is a very variable species, even within the same colony, I got a good series this tear and the variation was very nice.
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Post by nomad on Oct 22, 2013 3:26:42 GMT -8
Hi dunc. Yes, two very nice box of specimens. It is true Lasiommata megera has declined greatly in many inland areas. I used catch these as a boy on a piece of rough ground, near a stream by my old home on the edge of the town.  Today we are still lucky to have these on the Wilts Downs but it is still a very local butterfly there. I enjoy watching these butterflies with their strange low zigzagging and floating flight. Very hard to approach when basking. Here is a male L. megera basking on a leaf, along a old drove road in north Wiltshire in September of last year.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2013 4:47:16 GMT -8
I once had the company of Lasiommata megera for around 2 miles as it would settle on the path in front of me and as I approached it would fly up and settle about 20 feet in front of me and repeat this for ages, oh the memories of youth.
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Post by smallcopper on Oct 22, 2013 5:25:52 GMT -8
Indeed, happy memories of youth! I remember as a boy walking the coast between St. Just and Nanjizal in Cornwall with them every few paces. I was using a rockpool net in those early days, and catching them was extremely difficult! As an aside, those early years using that tiny net stood me in good stead once I graduated to a kite net - it seemed almost impossible to miss with such a massive net having got used to anticipating butterflies' flight with the rockpooling net. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2013 5:43:46 GMT -8
I too, as many of my friends did, started with a small net, alas as I have gotten older I seem to be no more proficient with a large net as I was with the small one, as my son remarked "the old mans lost it" I didn't know if he was referring to my technique or my marbles but I still manage to hit more than I miss, I just don't chase them as far as I used to.
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Post by nomad on Oct 22, 2013 6:19:12 GMT -8
After walking around for some time with my home made net, I was pleased as punch when I got my first Kite net, [ Thank heavens for Watkins & Doncaster }. I now thought, that I was a serious collector and this type of net was was very handy for packing away for those holidays to the Dorset coast. Happy days indeed. |
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Post by smallcopper on Oct 22, 2013 7:00:06 GMT -8
Re the distance chased - I know the feeling! Time was when I'd keep going and nothing short of a barbed wire fence or a buckthorn hedge would stop me. Alas no longer! I remember chasing my first ever male A.cardamines (it seemed impossibly exotic to me, used as I was to P.brassicae) through a field of dead broad beans, choked with creeping thistle. This being the 1970s I was wearing short shorts, and my legs got scratched to pieces. I got the butterfly though, and still have it. Not well-set, but enormous sentimental value. Re nets - yes, W&D seemed like an Aladdin's cave when I first stumbled across them! My first net from them was a springframe which I still have, and still use as my travelling-light net. Plus it's a lot less in-your-face than a kite net in some circumstances. And I certainly felt like a pro once I was out in the Dorset droves armed with my kite net. As you say nomad, happy days |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2013 9:27:18 GMT -8
It's funny you should mention A Cardamines, it reached my part of Yorkshire in 1976, I too chased my first orange tip for a long, long way over fields, must have ran for over 20 minutes before I bagged him, they tend to have to come to me these days.
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like these two species because they were the first two butterflies that I ever caught and set.
like these two species because they were the first two butterflies that I ever caught and set.
Today we are still lucky to have these on the Wilts Downs but it is still a very local butterfly there. I enjoy watching these butterflies with their strange low zigzagging and floating flight. Very hard to approach when basking.
