Marian’s 2008 Butterflies (1 Viewer)

Sandpiper · Mar 13, 2008

Hi Marian,

Thank you for keeping us updated on your list. So far this year I have only seen one Red Admiral. The weather in the UK has been wet and windy recently, totally unsuitable for butterfly-watching. Thanks for sharing your beautiful close up of the Brimstone, a lovely image.

Peewit · Mar 13, 2008

Hi Marian

I have only just caught up with this thread, and it is very interesting to see how your pictures of the butterflies progress through the seasons. o

Beautiful pictures by the way. I do recognize some over others but as we know it takes practice, and lots of observation skills to know which is which. Butterflies are an art unto themselves. o

Some help from people on the BF site here helped no end last year, and I really appreciate their help and hope to connect this year in the same way - meeting of minds, and all that connects us as people.

I have not seen any butterflies yet in the UK, but that is probably due to our strange weather system, we have in the UK at the moment. One minute it is Spring, then it is winter, and to top it all there is wind and snow. Cold then warm then cold again. o

So if I where a butterfly, I think I would quite confused by now :eek!:

Will look into your thread and keep an ongoing interest in what you have to say here. :t:

Look forward to seeing more, at all times now :t:

Kathy
x

ChickaD · Mar 13, 2008

Marian Alvarez said:
ChickaD, it is a pleasure to have you among us, no "put up with" at all!!! :-O This is a huge site, so take your time to learn to navigate here! :t:

Well, folks, the gales are apparently over and sunshine is more or less back. I've not found new Butterflies but I managed a record shot of a Red Admiral (now I have a decent pic of all the Butterflies I've found this year) and, the most important thing, I could take proper macro-shots of a Brimstone for the first time ever. I wanted to share this beautiful male with all of you, so here it is.

Hope you like it! Cheers!

:hi: Marian, you are a kind person. I so enjoy your two butterflies, beautiful. I recall you saying this website could be addictive :-O I have found myself just "checking into BF" and hour and half later, still checking...everything:-O

Our weather right now is temps in mid 40's, which is warming up for us, snow is melting...yes! Have a great day and what a great bunch you all really are

ChickaD

Peewit · Mar 13, 2008

Hi Marian

I thought I would let you know that I had the joys of seeing Admiral butterflies in Aberdeen at the beginning of last year. At one stage we saw 10 of these beautiful butterflies on one of our plants outdoors. The thing is with Admirals is that they are not too bothered if you get really close to them, so I think they will be easy to photograph as a rule.

Last year, we have seen Brimstones (never saw a Brimstone in Scotland) in our current garden in Bedford in the UK, and had the luck of seeing a Peacock too. We where lucky to see blues too. They are quite small so we need to work out what is what here. Blues are complex as there are so many types to find out about. Digital Camera is needed and that is why I need to get the hang of it for fabulous results.

I have just invested in a new set of binoculars soley for viewing butterflies in the last year so it is a good investment for future viewings

We are going to Spain this year on holiday, so I am looking forward to seeing all the butterflies I can, along with the birds that we see too.

Will keep you informed here, by PM if you wish too.

Kathy
x

madamcoolpix · Mar 13, 2008

Thank you for your loyalty to this thread, Mike and ChickaD! That was a quick reply!

Sorry about the weather, Mike, I'm looking forward to hearing you English saying Spring is there too and you all can start enjoying Butterflying!

ChickaD said:
I have found myself just "checking into BF" and hour and half later, still checking...everything :-O

I've suffered that experience many times, sometimes I have to think twice if I have the time to afford browsing BF! :-O

Hi, Kathy! :hi: I'm happy you've found this thread and you liked it! For me it is being a pleasure to be able to share my Butterflies with people interested in them, and to know about what others have found at the same time.

I think Butterflies are not that difficult if you can take pictures of them. Some are difficult (some Fritillaries, and the Blues, for example) but with a bit of practise you get used to them quickly and the skills to ID them improve very fast. I find them rewarding subjects from every point of view.

Yes, please, keep us updated with your findings! :bounce:

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Madrid. As Central Spain will be warmer than here in the North, I hope to find something new to show you next week.

Good luck to all of you! :t:

Marian

madamcoolpix · Mar 19, 2008

Hi, people! :hi: Here I am after the weekend in Madrid! It has been like “taking a break” during this wet and cool March we are having in N Spain. In Central Spain, Spring is more or less established and you can feel it everywhere. Migrant birds are starting to arrive and the Butterflies are moving around, in some places in high numbers.

On Saturday (15/03) we visited Aranjuez, in the Southern extreme of Madrid Province, as the weather forecast was nicer for that part. Birding was very good and Butterflying too, we found 12 different species! These are the new ones:

11. Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
12. Bath White (Pontia daplidice)
13. Swallowtail (Papilio machaon)
14. Western Dapped White (Euchloe crameri)
15. Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius)
16. Large White (Pieris brassicae)
17. Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)
18. Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae)
19. Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas)

I only regret they were not cooperative. Both Swallowtails refused to land and I failed to take decent pictures of most of the others, but some are good enough. I’m going to prepare the pictures to share them later.

Bye for now!

Peewit · Mar 19, 2008

Hi Marion

Thank you for sharing you experiences about your butterflies, great to hear about :t:

I have to say that is an impressive list of butterflies you have there. The Swallowtails must be beautiful to see :-O

I am looking forward to seeing your pictures later on. :-O

Kathy
x

madamcoolpix · Mar 19, 2008

Hi, Kathy! :hi: Great to hear from you! o

I’ve tried to PM you but something must be wrong with your PM box, I got this message: “Peewit has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.” I don’t know how to solve this! |:S|

Yes, swallowtails are beautiful creatures to watch, very distinctive with their big size. I’m almost sure you’ll see both of them during your holidays. And probably the Two-tailed Pasha (a Mediterranean specialty that I’ve still not seen), as spectacular as the Swallowtails.

Well, here are the pictures taken in Aranjuez. I’m only posting the reasonable good ones:

a. I’ve made this “collage” to show both sides of the little Brown Argus… Although the upperside view is a proper macro picture, it says not much about the ID by itself…
b. The Bath White, a common Butterfly but very difficult to take a picture of. I’m posting this because I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to take something better later in the year.
c. The Chestnut Skipper, a very hard one to ID for me, but last year I started to get used to it. I've decided to upload this shot taken by my sister, my own pictures of this Skipper were no good at all...
d. This lovely female Large White was the only Butterfly that let me take good macro pictures on Saturday. This image has cost me some crawling but I like a lot the result and it is my first good image of this species.

I hope you like the pictures! Tomorrow, if my family duties allow me, I’ll tell you all what happened on last Sunday!

Bye for now!

Peewit · Mar 19, 2008

Marian Alvarez said:
Hi, Kathy! :hi: Great to hear from you! o I’ve tried to PM you but something must be wrong with your PM box, I got this message: “Peewit has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.” I don’t know how to solve this! |:S|

Yes, swallowtails are beautiful creatures to watch, very distinctive with their big size. I’m almost sure you’ll see both of them during your holidays. And probably the Two-tailed Pasha (a Mediterranean specialty that I’ve still not seen), as spectacular as the Swallowtails.

Well, here are the pictures taken in Aranjuez. I’m only posting the reasonable good ones:

a. I’ve made this “collage” to show both sides of the little Brown Argus… Although the upperside view is a proper macro picture, it says not much about the ID by itself…
b. The Bath White, a common Butterfly but very difficult to take a picture of. I’m posting this because I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to take something better later in the year.
c. The Chestnut Skipper, a very hard one to ID for me, but last year I started to get used to it. I've decided to upload this shot taken by my sister, my own pictures of this Skipper were no good at all...
d. This lovely female Large White was the only Butterfly that let me take good macro pictures on Saturday. This image has cost me some crawling but I like a lot the result and it is my first good image of this species.

I hope you like the pictures! Tomorrow, if my family duties allow me, I’ll tell you all what happened on last Sunday!

Bye for now!

Hi Marian

Thank you for your answer and you observation about my PM box. I have resolved the issue now and now you will be able to PM me again. :-O

I would say that those pictures a fab and they are really good. So that is my thumbs up to you. Well done, and thank you for sharing them as you have done so.
I love the way you have presented you first picture of the Little Brown Argos, and the inset that you have presented as a smaller picture.

Yes love to hear your adventures of what happened last Sunday too?

I would love for your expertise on what we will see on our Spanish holiday soon?
We are sailing (lessons) for 2 weeks, but we will have our daily free time too. I will be on the look out all of the time.

The area comes into it too for what we will see too. All advise will be greatly valued here.

Feel free to PM me, anytime. :-O

Kathy
x

madamcoolpix · Mar 20, 2008

Well, friends, as I have quite a lot of stuff to share from Sunday I’m going to make two posts. This first one is about the pictures I took of Butterflies seen the previous day but that I failed to photograph then. The second will be the additions to the Year List.

For unknown reasons, Butterflies on Sunday were far more cooperative so I managed to take pictures of all the species I had seen the day before… except the Swallowtails! The place is El Pardo, in the outskirts of Madrid, a quite reliable spot to find Spanish Imperial Eagle. But Butterflying and Dragonflying is as good as Birding there. Here you have:

a. The Small Heath, it was absolutely full of them! If I didn’t take a better picture it was my fault, I failed to choose the right setting in the camera and this macro-picture turned out somehow too dark. Well, next time… (

).

b. The beautiful Small Copper. They were quite restless but as there were many I had plenty of chances to take a nice macro. This one needed some crawling too! :-O

c. The striking Western Dapped White. An Iberian specialty (in Europe it is only found in Iberia and Southern France), it was plenty of them too, but these were almost impossible to photograph. They only stay 1-2 seconds on the flowers, so I had no time to get to them and focus. But I was lucky to find this lady laying eggs… that takes a bit longer than sipping! :'D

More things later!

Sandpiper · Mar 20, 2008

Hi Marian,

Thanks for updating your list. You have made me jealous by posting these beautiful pictures of the species you have seen so far this year. My total up to now is still one, Red Admiral. I have seen what I assume to be the same individual three times over recent weeks.

Weather here is cool and windy with occasional light rain. Even colder conditions are forecast over the coming weekend. No butterflies just yet!

Hope you and your family have a Happy Easter.

Mike.

Steve Kershaw · Mar 20, 2008

Hi Marian. Ive just been admiring your latest Butterfly photos and wishing the weather was a bit warmer here! I saw a Brimstone last weekend flying past rather rapidly! It was just a glimpse? The first butterfly I've seen this year! The weather has turned very cold once again and so spring seems a long way off! I am stiil persisting with the drawings and hope to post some more soon in the gallery! Best wishes for the time being from Steve.

madamcoolpix · Mar 20, 2008

Hi, Mike and Steve! :hi:

I’m sorry to hear Spring is around the corner only in the calendar! The situation is not better here: we will have snow in the mountains near Oviedo tomorrow! :-C This visit to Madrid has been like a relief in this cold March we are having.

Mike, please think that you’ll see most of this stuff during your holidays in a couple of months!

Steve, I’m glad to see you have some brave and tough Brimstones in your area!

By the way, I’m not visiting much the gallery during this Easter time because of my family duties, but I’ll be back next week, and I’ll check your work as soon as I can!

And these are the new Butterflies of the year that I saw in El Pardo:

20. Queen-of-Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia)
21. Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros)

I couldn’t resist making a “collage” to add a view showing the wonderful pearly underwing of the Queen-of-Spain Fritillary (Steve, I thought of you when I saw this one!

). As for the Large Tortoiseshell, there were two of them, and managed to take a picture of this one while it was having a sunbath on the ground of a Pine forest. It is only my second encounter with this beautiful Butterfly, so it made me very happy.

I hope you enjoy the pictures… and to have more to share soon! o

Cheers!

Steve Kershaw · Mar 21, 2008

These are wonderful Marian. Especially the Queen of Spain fritillary. I'm feeling quite pleased with myself! I think my drawing was'nt half bad? Thank you so much for posting these beautiful photos. I hope you and your family have a lovely easter. Keep in touch! Kind regards. Steve.

Peewit · Mar 21, 2008

Hi Marian

Just catching up on your thread Marian

Love your pictures once more, and learning a lot from the experience here. Pleased to be here! Thank you for sharing here - love seeing what you see.

The picture of the Small Copper is beautiful, and the as for the Western Dappled White - what a stunner. I just love the colouring, and it would blend in well with the foilage to be a colour like it is. That is the underside we are seeing. What is its colouration topside?

Tortoiseshells wow ...... they are not so apparent now.

We had lots of Brimstones, by the dozen last year in our current garden, along with Red Admirals.

Hear is hoping our mad UK weather will not hold back the butterfly season - snow expected this weekend.

Have a great Easter time, what ever you do!

I will compile a list of butterfly and bird species that are seen on my holidays. and I must keep my eyes peeled for them. No doubt I will write a report to BF once back. Must get the new camera going as we are keen to take pictures now.

Take care
Kathy
x

ChickaD · Mar 25, 2008

o

Hi Marian, Here goes a second try to post this, the first time I lost my internet connection :-C

I just checked out all your beautiful butterflies and it made me so happy once again to see your work.

Mother Nature fooled us again here with over 12" snow just before Easter. One positive that I had seen, were some kids made Easter Rabbits out of snow instead of snowmen and some even sprayed them pink. :-O

Take care and I'll be checking in again soon,
Darlene

madamcoolpix · Mar 25, 2008

Hi again folks! :hi:

Steve, I'd be very pleased with myself if I could do plates like those you draw!

:loveme: Thank you for your wishes... although I'm a bit late to wish you the same! :-C

Kathy, the Western Dapped White has a relatively similar pattern to other little Whites on the upperwing (mostly white with dark wing tips), I still can't tell them appart in the field if I don't see the underwing... I'm still learning, you know

You will not find this one in Menorca, but check for the Bath White (my number 12), that one is present there! And it is easy to recognize!

Darlene, here the weather is fooling us too, even the Swallows feel fooled!

The weather forecast was right and we had snow in the outskits of my city... Impossible to find Butterflies under these conditions! Good to see you are taking this with sense of humour! :-O

But I'm running out of patience and I'm planning to visit Madrid area again for next weekend. The weather forecast is not great for there either but at least it will not be so cold, and I'll have a chance to do some Birdwatching and Butterflying.

Good luck to everybody, keep your eyes wide open just in case a confused Butterfly dares to have a go sipping in a frozen flower! :-O

SueO · Mar 27, 2008

Hi Marian,
I found a few shots of some of the butterflies I've seen. I thought I had a couple of them identified from some of your posts, but after looking, I see they are different. I got a little blue colored butterfly recently at Nemi, Italy. I thought it must be like the blue one you put up, but mine doesn't have rusty spots on it. I went to the gallery to browse--WOW--so many to learn. I guess I need some books besides the bird books I'm getting for the next section of the world we're sailing to. Anyway, I'm posting a few shots for some id help even though I'm embarassed by the quality. I need to learn how to use the macro!
The first shot is from the Island of Tilos in Greece
The second Ephesus Turkey
The third is the little blue one from Nemi, Italy
Sue

madamcoolpix · Mar 27, 2008

Hi, Sue! :hi: Lovely to see you here again... and giving me a bit of work during this period of no-IDs available because of the awful weather!

At first glance, I'd say these are:

1. Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), quite distinctive once you've learned the pattern.

2. Two-tailed Pasha (Charaxes jasius), an impressive creature I'd love to see but I still had not the chance to... |8(| You lucky girl! |=)|

3. Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus). Blues are terribly confusing but this one is relatively easy once you've got used to it: the underwing seems uniformly blue with only small spots. There are a few others roughly similar but a close look shows thery are really different. And the Holy Blue is much more common.

I don't know if there is something resambling a Painted Lady or a Two-tailed Pasha in Greese and Turkey, but I doubt it. I feel quite confident with these IDs!

Thank you for the pics, Sue, and as you see they are good enough to identify the gems! :t:

Cheers!

SueO · Mar 27, 2008

Thanks for the id's Marian. Painted Lady!? Gads, you'd think I would have recognized that. I'ts obvious I didn't pay attention in the past. We have those is California. They make a big migration. I remember being in Pacifica (near San Fransisco), and seeing them coming through. The middle one,from Marmaris, Turkey, was a special thing to see. It was quite large and was feeding on the sap of the Liquid Ambers that filled the forest with the scent of incense sticks. The last one was a tiny beauty and was hard to get a shot of. Thanks again for the information.

Marian’s 2008 Butterflies (1 Viewer)

Mike Powell

Once a bird lover ... always a bird lover

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Once a bird lover ... always a bird lover

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a.k.a. Madam Butterfly

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Mike Powell

Well-known member

a.k.a. Madam Butterfly

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Once a bird lover ... always a bird lover

Well-known member

a.k.a. Madam Butterfly

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a.k.a. Madam Butterfly

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