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Butterflies: Why are there so many?


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Posted
  • Location: Saddleworth, Oldham , 175m asl
  • Weather Preferences: warm and sunny, thunderstorms, frost, fog, snow, windstorms
  • Location: Saddleworth, Oldham , 175m asl

got a rareity flittering about..

 

a fritilary!

 

got to be confirmed as to which, but for derby suburbs this is a very rare occurance. i saw it in a customers garden today, its only 1/4 mile from mine, she (a wildlife lover and knowlegable) was telling me about it when it fluttered in and settled.

 

it was about the size and colour of a painted lady...

 

I saw a Dark Green Fritillary last month, first one I'd even seen in my area!

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Posted
  • Location: North York Moors
  • Location: North York Moors

The Peacock numbers are just amazing here, I aren't clear if they have all bred locally or are somehow an influx from further south.Some years you only see the odd one but this year you can send up fluttering crowds.They are especially fond of the later flowering creeping thistles.

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

Anybody seen a painted lady yet?

Edited by A Boy Named Sue
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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby

Anybody seen a painted lady yet?

 

nope...

 

but they are migratory and do best when we have a warm southerly in may... those adults breed and produce great numbers for august, 1995 was a prime example.

 

talking about migrants... seen very few red admirals...

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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby

litterally hundereds of peacocks in my garden... its a long garden with a dozen or so buddleia bushes of varying sizes...they are all covered..

 

post-2797-0-29543400-1376049152_thumb.jp

 

after several years of where theyve been almost absent, it makes me woder where they have all come from?.. and why peacocks have done very well but small tortoishells (similar lifestyle/cycle) havnt.

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

nope...

 

but they are migratory and do best when we have a warm southerly in may... those adults breed and produce great numbers for august, 1995 was a prime example.

 

talking about migrants... seen very few red admirals...

I've seen two. One whole one and one that had had most of its wings torn off...

 

Just been outside again; buddleia is surrounded with peacocks and commas...

Edited by A Boy Named Sue
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Posted
  • Location: Reading
  • Location: Reading

Can't remember a better year for peacock butterflies.  Loads flying round the garden and we keep getting them inside the house as well at the moment.  Plenty of whites (probably large/cabbage whites) and a few red admirals and the odd brimstone too.  Have been wondering what the green caterpillars were that have been eating our rose bushes - probably large whites, I guess, but are roses a bit off their usual territory?

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

Can't remember a better year for peacock butterflies.  Loads flying round the garden and we keep getting them inside the house as well at the moment.  Plenty of whites (probably large/cabbage whites) and a few red admirals and the odd brimstone too.  Have been wondering what the green caterpillars were that have been eating our rose bushes - probably large whites, I guess, but are roses a bit off their usual territory?

Same here, with the peacocks coming indoors...Had a swift in the living room yesterday, too!

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

 A 'swift' what?

Just a swift...Maybe it was following the peacock?

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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby

Can't remember a better year for peacock butterflies.  Loads flying round the garden and we keep getting them inside the house as well at the moment.  Plenty of whites (probably large/cabbage whites) and a few red admirals and the odd brimstone too.  Have been wondering what the green caterpillars were that have been eating our rose bushes - probably large whites, I guess, but are roses a bit off their usual territory?

 

89, 90, were two great years as was 95, 95 had loads of painted ladies too...

 

i just cant fathom where theyve all come from after years of hardly any.... can they hibernate for years, waiting for the right conditions?

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Posted
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire
  • Weather Preferences: Cool not cold, warm not hot. No strong Wind.
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire

Just come across this news article whilst looking for info/news on why...

 

http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/News/Northampton-News/Northamptonshire-butterfly-boom-20130810180000.htm

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

Just been out for an attempted count...7 peacocks, 1 comma, 3 tortoiseshells and a load of whites. And that's all on a buddleia in its first year!

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Posted
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire
  • Weather Preferences: Cool not cold, warm not hot. No strong Wind.
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire

Butterfly numbers are very good this year, seen similar here, and at a local butterfly meadow there are hundreds of them.

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

It's marvellous, mate...I can sit on the grass, with my wee grandson & granddaughter, and just watch the butterflies. I wonder what my chances of seeing a swallowtail are? I've never seen a live one in my life!

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Posted
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire
  • Weather Preferences: Cool not cold, warm not hot. No strong Wind.
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire

It certainly is, as for a swallowtail, I have seen them but not recently, think it was at a butterfly zoo (is that right?) in the IoW many years ago.

Edited by Jax
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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

Just had a funny situation: a peacock flying in through the window and out through the door, in through the window and out through the door, round and round in circles...Eventually, I put it out through the window! It hasn't come back - daft animals!Posted Image 

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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby

get peacocks and tortoishells hibernating in the house over winter, sometimes in built in wardrobes, other times in the stairwell up top..

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

I'm only seeing the common varieties in abundance, but there does seem to be a lot more of them especially Red Admiral's and Small Whites:

 

 
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Posted
  • Location: chellaston, derby
  • Weather Preferences: The Actual Weather ..... not fantasy.
  • Location: chellaston, derby

I'm only seeing the common varieties in abundance, but there does seem to be a lot more of them especially Red Admiral's and Small Whites:

 

 

im missing admirals, still only seen 1... thats very unusual.

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

im missing admirals, still only seen 1... thats very unusual.

 

We seem to have more of those down here than any other species currently

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Posted
  • Location: East Devon
  • Location: East Devon

I've just the common types in our garden really, tortoiseshells are probably most abundant now, then quite a lot of peacocks (that's ignoring the whites which may be most abundant over all)

Dad saw a silver-washed fritillary a couple weeks ago though. A few commas at times and the odd red admiral in our garden too. 

 

However there were a few red admirals down by the river on Saturday in a pebbly long grass/reeds/plants area, where I also saw a couple small coppers, a meadow brown and a gatekeeper.

Similar on local heathland yesterday and also quite a lot of greylings. Seen nothing particularly uncommon though.

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Posted
  • Location: East Devon
  • Location: East Devon

Just saw a silver-washed fritillary fluttering around our front garden which landed on our windowsill - looked quite old/warn out with a damaged wing though.

 

Lots of tortoiseshells some landing on the ground/our walls when the sun goes in and back to the buddleia when it comes out.

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