Red Admiral

[wolf]

I saw a Red Amiral today,is this a little late for it to be flying around?

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[JDWilts]

We still have a garden full of admirals. They also seem to be very large this year. I saw an absolutely huge one in the New Forest on Sunday.

Have you seen www.britishbutterflies.co.uk? Its an excellent resource but its down at the moment.

 

[wolf]

thanks for link,will try later,,,

 

[Toddy]

I'm in central Scotland and they were flying in my garden yesterday too. I had to catch the cat and stop her trying to hunt them We've also still got *huge* ghost moths in the garden at night It is very mild though.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Moonraker]

Nice photo Wolf

'LeVulcain' as it is called in France, can sometimes be seen during Winter in the Midi region on milder days.

They lay their eggs on nettles and it is another good reason to leave a patch of nettles in the garden

 

[Cyclingrelf]

They're one of the species that overwinter as a butterfly.

 

[Povarian]

I saw a Red Amiral today,is this a little late for it to be flying around?

I was quite gobsmacked to see one on Christmas eve last year, near Wendover, Bucks - nearly smeared it with the car windscreen too. Of course, it was very mild last winter, but they always used to be gone from around here by mid-Autumn.

 

[wolf]

yes alot of things seem to fly around longer now,the bumble bee can be seen all year now on mild days.

 

[leon-1]

Yep, there are a lot of things that are flying and flowering and shouldn't really be. I saw a reasonably sized hornet this weekend on Dartmoor.

There is an apple tree on route to the job center and a pear tree up the road from me that have fruit on them. We have roses flowering in my next door neighbours garden and I have a number of Canna (sp) plants (supposedly native of Africa) in my garden that are still flowering now.

 

[tomtom]

well it is forcast to be a particularly cold winter this year.. so enjoy these things while they are about!

 

[leon-1]

well it is forcast to be a particularly cold winter this year.. so enjoy these things while they are about!

Tom they had said that about last year as well, the problem is more that the cold snaps that we are getting are somewhat out of sequence with normal seasonal change

 

[wolf]

im registered as a phenologist here,you can see the changing patterns over the years.
http://www.phenology.org.uk/

 

[tomtom]

Tom they had said that about last year as well, the problem is more that the cold snaps that we are getting are somewhat out of sequence with normal seasonal change

Britian have some of the longes meterologcal records in the world so we are able to predict evens such as this better than most(though still not with 100% accuracy), there are certain paterns and sequences of currents in the north atlantic that have been persent in at all of britians VERY cold winters over the last 200 years or so and it seems they are around again now, the last one took 8 or nine years for many species insects and birds and mamals to recover.. if not this year then maybe next i dont know enough on the topic.

 

[leon-1]

Britian have some of the longes meterologcal records in the world so we are able to predict evens such as this better than most(though still not with 100% accuracy), there are certain paterns and sequences of currents in the north atlantic that have been persent in at all of britians VERY cold winters over the last 200 years or so and it seems they are around again now, the last one took 8 or nine years for many species insects and birds and mamals to recover.. if not this year then maybe next i dont know enough on the topic.

Yes, I know what you are talking about, one of the reasons for last years predictions was that the Gulf stream had shifted slightly and the last time that it did this the Thames froze, so I know where you are coming from.