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Friday 28 March 2014

Small Tortoiseshell

Walking out in what I considered to be too cold for any early butterflies yesterday (air temperature 11 celsius) I was surprised to see two Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) feeding on dandelion flowers. Not a colonising species the Small Tortoiseshell flies freely across the countryside and can be found in a number of habitats. 

These I photographed have emerged from hibernation and although it was cold, there was the odd showing of the sun through thick haze. I couldn't get a very good angle on these two as I was shooting through the small portal of a bird hide on to flowers in front of the hide.

This is the second batch of this species I have seen so far this Spring, which is very encouraging as the year before last the population was decimated due to the poor weather conditions and I only observed a few throughout last year.






31 comments:

  1. Hi Roy Lovely shots of this butterfly. I hope it will warm up a bit soon. Have a great weekend.

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    1. Thanks Margaret, I think its warmer at the weekend.{:))

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  2. so beautiful to see; what a treat...

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  3. Hey Roy, I haven't been very active with bloggong lately but I'm glad I stopped by yours. Your pictures got me looking forward to spring. This has been one brutal winter for us, this past week we had below zero temps and we still have feet of snow on the ground. Depressing actually, I need green.

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    1. Hi John, I think I can give you more green from now on and many other colours.{:))
      In the UK we complain about the occasional extreme weather, but should be grateful we don't get you problems.
      If we did, then we wouldn't have the facilities to deal with it anyway. Hope you weather improves soon.

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  4. Roy, it's good to see them out and about and doing well...[;o)

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    1. It was just a little bit of warmth coming through the haze Trevor and it was a sheltered position.

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  5. Bonjour Roy,
    11 °C, ce n'est pas beaucoup ..... ils devaient avoir les ailes engourdies, mais tes photos sont très belles :)
    11 ° C, it is not much ..... they must have wings numb, but your photos are beautiful :)

    Bye my friend

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    1. Bonjour Nathalie, C'est la limite basse je pense.
      Merci.

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  6. Nice shots, it is also very nice to see all the fresh green grass around the Dandelion, a nice fresh photo with promise of things to come.

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    1. Thanks Amanda, yes hopefully plenty of butterflies.

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  7. How lovely to come across this beauty so unexpectedly. Great photos Roy, I am looking forward to seeing our butterflies soon.

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  8. Excellent pictured Roy... lovely to have Spring back again.
    (btw, what camera and lens did you use.. beautifully sharp pics of the flutter... not easy subject)..

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    1. Thanks Tricia, camera used was a Lumix GH3 with Panasonic 100-300mm lens at 300mm, mostly f8 with ISO settings from around 500 to 800. f8 seems a pretty good setting with this lens especially for butterflies in the bright sunlight.

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  9. nice pics Roy. it's lovely to see the butterflies reappearing!

    just catching up!

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  10. Hey Roy.... I can't believe it is the beginning of your butterfly posts again, how nice to see this beauty again!! It has been so dang cold here, about 20 degrees below normal !! March of 2012 it was way above normal with 80-90 temps !!

    Grace

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    1. It comes around too quick in some respects GG. If you know what I mean.{:))

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  11. Super photos. I didn't see any Small Tortoiseshell butterflies until late spring/early summer in 2013 - but there are plenty here already this year.

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  12. Beautiful pictures, I love spring, so much life! I saw lots of butterflies over the weekend, think I've seen more in March than the whole of last summer. I'm happy about that. I've deleted my blog by the way, but I'll keep following yours as I like your country pics!

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    1. Thanks Helena.
      Sorry to hear that you have deleted your blog, but it does take up time to continually post and find something new.

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  13. I see in the Netherlands are already a lot of butterflies and that gives me a very nice feeling :-)

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