Torties have moved north

I live about halfway up Scotland, and we have suffered the same Tortoiseshell declines. These are my figures from monitoring a hibernaculum near Perth for example:

millerd wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2025 10:54 pm this shot rather symbolises the potential threat my neighbouring airport represents to the local butterfly population

A super shot Dave - one of my favourites of the year too!

I don't have a personal photo of Wood white, living in Scotland, but I have this life-stages composite I created in 2024 with the help of photos from Pete Eeles and Vince Massimo. Part of a full set for UK species that I'm working on.

This one was warming up in my back garden one morning in May. An opportunity to get the wide-angle macro lens out.

Bertl wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 8:18 pm I only spent one day looking for small blues on the 25th May at a site in Glamis.
Bert.

Your photos were taken the same day that Ben and I were there, Bert. Maybe you were in the sand pits while we were on the railway line in the other direction.

A few more from Glamis, Scotland, along an abandoned railway track. There used to be many colonies on the old railway network, but most have scrubbed over over the decades.

A sequence taken at Tents Muir in Fife, 21st July.

it seems that during the pupal stage this butterfly is more dependant upon ants than was previously realised. I can confirm that both larvae and pupae attract plenty of ant attention in my greenhouse David. The pupae normally end up under plant pots containing oak saplings, and I'm keen to find out...

I usually rear some from rescued windfall eggs. There are a few pictures of this year's. Obviously this is cheating from a photographic point of view so apologies for that! I often try to make it clear in the photo that these are not in a natural situation, to avoid confusion with natural behaviour,...

This was a very fresh female, and appeared to still be unfirling? After 6 minutes she briefly opened her wings before flying back into the relative safety of the oak tree (until the next flock of tits pass by). Very interesting behavioural observations David. If she was still drying her wings, that...

David M wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2024 4:34 pm Impressive, Chris!

Here in Perthshire there are very few spring butterflies David, and the season only really kicks off in mid-May, which means getting creative with Orange-tips is one of the few spring options

Eye-to-eye! A reared specimen before release.

This one was one of a small batch of reared ones protected in captivity from larval stage. An opportunity for some arty photos before release, but the same thing could be achieved with a piece of white card behind wild roosting ones, and a handheld light source.

Some garden Peacocks in Perthshire, engrossed enough in feeding to be photographed with 15mm wide-angle macro lens.

A few from a site near Coupar Angus, in the Sidlaw Hills north-west of Dundee. There are a few NBA colonies scattered along the slopes of this small glen, above valley mire habitat which also supports good numbers of Small-pearl bordered and Dark green fritillaries.

Lovely scenery. I worked in Oban for 6 months back in the nineties so this strikes a chord with me. I don't get over to the west side often David, so it was a novelty for me. There is a lot of surveying needed over there and plenty of discoveries to be made so I will aim to visit there more often i...

Did you have to travel far on Lismore to see them? I normally take an annual daytrip to Port Appin to see them close to the jubilee bridge. Unfortunately couldn't make it in 2024. It was a fair bit of trekking around, mostly checking sites near the lochs. However I found a new site by the road not ...

A few from a day trip to Lismore island off the west coast of Scotland on 31st May. This involved a short ferry trip with my bike to a small island with historical Marsh fritillary records, but little up to date knowledge of their occurrence. Unfortunately the shock of a first bike ride of the year ...

I missed the emergence itself Jack - just left the camera running and came back to find the butterfly (they always seem to emerge just when you stop paying attention for a few minutes!). Replaying the video I'd captured was quite an experience - quite amazing.

Chris

I managed to capture an emergence in closeup on video (after a few attempts) this spring. Copy and paste link here:

youtu.be/NfLGpbPB6kI