BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="HarassedDad" data-source="post: 1623396" data-attributes="member: 10608">I'd agree that you can't really use the lack of records before 1995 as any sort of guide to the likelyhood of a release. We can use dragonflies as a control group as (so far) no-one seems to be releasing them, and any arrivals can be considered genuine. Since 1995 we've had a flood of new dragonfly species arriving into the country and breeding, whereas before 1995 there were very few. (Although Yellow-winged darter bred for one year in Norfolk in 1946) So we ought to be seeing new species of butterfly arriving - frankly I'm surprised we haven't.As for UK winters, I've had Camberwells reported in March for the last three years here, and one at least definately overwintered because we saw it go into the barn and we saw it come out! But then we've had a drought this year, while I gather the rest of you had a bit of a wet summer? But yes in general the UK's climate is very different to the continents, which is why we have such a restricted butterfly fauna compared to France or Holland.There's actually quite good circumstantial evidence incidently that the suffolk QoS weren't released (at least not by the usual crowd) but I don't think I'm at liberty to discuss it. And in any case it doesn't preclude someone turning up out of the blue with a cardboard box in their car. The problem is that releases mean that we won't know that we've got a new species until we get a small red-eyed, willow emerald damselfly sort of situation: ie a widespread migration along a wide front with egg laying reported from lots of sites. Until that happens, the default position has to be that stuff has been released. (And of course if one locality consistently produces weird records year after year but of different species there is a tendency to flag anything out of the ordinary from there as suspect: the only way I'd believe a record from Briston for example is if I'd flown behind it all the way from Holland - and frankly even then I'd check for strings!)Of course, we should note that butterfly breeding (as opposed to releasing) is a perfectly reasonable hobby that's produced lots of genuinely good information about life cycles. I know one chap who had over 200 Heath Fritillaries in his shed this year. But he wouldn't dream of letting them out into the wild, since he recognises that it's a species that hasn't got any suitable habitat here. But then there's one chap I know who released 25 Monarchs in Norwich a few years ago. Why? No food plant, completely unsuitable climate, they must have died in hours - completely pointless. And my local chip shop rang me up last August because they'd just had an American Moon moth fly in the door. Oh and I just found this on one of the breeder's forums:"Some years back I released some of the Common Mormon butterflies into the outdoors, hoping that they would perhaps enjoy a flight before being caught and eaten by the crows. " And this in a thread complaining because DEFRA might impose an import ban on certain species that might threaten crops if they get out. How dare the govt. restrict their hobby just because it might devistate the livelihoods of a few farmers! Sheesh!</blockquote>

Verification