Wildlife 2007

[mark smyth]

yes the big one is for eating but not unril the gut has been cleared using oats

[Anthony Darby]

The large one (Helix aspersa (common or garden snail) is indeed eaten most commonly, but the edible snail served in restaurants and tins is H. pomatia.

[Maggi Young]

Andrew,  the yellow and striped ones are much prettier and more to my taste, if you'll pardon the pun!
It seems that Cuban Tree snails and  the marine snails have very much thicker shelss, so are easier to convert to jewellery wear than the thinner, more fragile, garden versions.....I think a lot of shells would be required to allow for breakages!!

A woman on telly yesterday said it was a waste of time to collect and kill the slugs and snails in the garden... as many of us do on our nightly hunting expeditions... she said just use nematodes or pellets... suggested that slug-pubs, containers with beer in to drown the brutes were liableto kill beneficial critters, too... what a misery she is..... even if the overall numbers are not greatly affected by our hunting, surely credit must be given for effort and the morale boost to the gardener for having at least TRIED to combat the slimy hordes?

[mark smyth]

I think they are finally under control in my garden by using pellets. Could we not club together to get Vine Weevils genetically modified to eat 'em?

[Maggi Young]

That's not a bad idea, Mark.... Ian's solution was to  have the slimy fellows genetically modified to only eat weeds  I wonder if there's a boffin somewhere working on this, even now?

[John Forrest]

At last the sun came out  and I decided to see what else was feeding on the flowers. The Verbena bonariensis always has the insects lining up to drink the nectar.

1 Painted lady never used to appear in my garden but now is a conatant visitor but am not sure what has changed to attract it. Perhaps the host plant for the caterpillars has been changed nearby.

2 Small Tortoiseshell are, as usual, abundant on the Verbena.

3 Holly Blue seems to prefer the Rudbeckia

4 Red Admiral on the Phlox.

5 When I went back to the conservatory for a res,t, I found it had beaten me to the couch.

[mark smyth]

great shots John. Butterflies in my garden this year are very flitty

[Anthony Darby]

No 5 is a peacock John.

[Paddy Tobin]

I think it might be a peahen - sorry, Anthony, couldn't resist!

Paddy

[ranunculus]

Super pictures John. Many thanks for posting....great minds must think alike though, as we went to Parceval Hall in the Yorkshire Dales to take some late summer images and I found myself concentrating on the butterflies and other little winged creatures...though some blooms did feature as well.
Just a sample of some of today's piccies....

[ranunculus]

Final batch from Parceval Hall today...

[Lesley Cox]

What wonderful pics. You in the north do butterflies much better than we do. Or rather, you have so many more kinds. It's great to see these, many thanks.

[John Forrest]

Super pics Cliff but I don't know about the 'great minds', perhaps 'like minds think great'. It's a long while since I went to Parceval Hall, it's a lovely tranquil place.

Thanks for the correction Mr D. I diddn't see it  with wings open, it flitted whilst my back was turned.

[Paul T]

Cliff,

Absolute corkers of pics.  The colours in the flutterbies are just beautiful!!  WOW!!  Nothing like those around here..... ours are predominantly boring, well compared to those anyway. 

I must dig up a pic of our strange delta-wing insect we get around here.  It looks like a butterfly to a degree, but when it lands it's wings fold in separately, giving it the appearance of having 4 smaller wings, 2 flat, and 2 at an angle from the back.  I never have worked out what it is and it has been damned hard to photograph as the little beggar is FAST and darn fidgety. 

[mark smyth]

Lesley there must be great looking butterfly species down there.

And mentioning down there I read recently that we are supposed to be at the bottom but early scientists put us at the top