British & Irish Butterfly Rarities

[bugboy]

Mine arrived today too, as Vince said, the level of research looks quite extraordinary. It will make the dark winter months pass by a lot more easy!

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks chaps! Yes, the amount of research was quite extensive, because it had to be. Even when I was done I was sure that there must be other records lurking - on data labels, for example. It reminded me of this episode of Blackadder (the dictionary episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSYiT2iG08

This is why I had to say that this was simply my best attempt at an archeological dig!

Cheers,

- Pete

[selbypaul]

Hi Pete
Just wanted to add my own praise. I've only flicked through my copy so far, but I can tell it is going to be an excellent and educational read.

Very much looking forward to reading it during the upcoming future autumn and winter evenings!
Best Wishes
Paul

[petesmith]

Just finished reading this - having blitzed half of it over the past few evenings, today's afternoon rainfall gave me the perfect excuse to indulge further.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. A superb read, beautifully illustrated and presented from start to finish, and as others have already said, a phenomenal amount of work and research has clearly gone into this masterpiece. You would expect nothing less from Mr.Eeles!

Congratulations Pete - great stuff!

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks both! It was also nice to get positive feedback while at the AES Exhibition yesterday. Seems the effort was worthwhile, which you never really know until a book is published and get feedback!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Jack Harrison]

I must confess to some embarrassment here.  I hadn't noticed the author's name and I had not realised it was written by you, Pete : that gives it a considerable 'gravitas'.

I'll check my bank balance.

Jack

[Padfield]

A vagrant copy turned up in Switzerland today! It's fantastic, Pete - really well produced as well as well researched. I had been wondering whether to display it with my Frohawk or my d'Abrera, but in the end decided to keep it by the loo, at least until I've read it cover to cover ...

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

... but in the end decided to keep it by the loo ...

What an honour

Cheers,

- Pete

[jasonbirder]

Nice little mention of Pete Eeles book in yesterdays Guardian in an article about the recent American Painted Lady occurences
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -of-scilly

[bugboy]

Nice little mention of Pete Eeles book in yesterdays Guardian in an article about the recent American Painted Lady occurences
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -of-scilly

Yup, time to update your book Pete

[Jack Harrison]

However, another Guardian article:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... extinction

does not inspire confidence in that Isles of Scilly report.

I should perhaps add that it was not the text I questioned (quotes from Neil Hulme) but the photo.

Jack

[bugboy]

However, another Guardian article:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... extinction

does not inspire confidence in that Isles of Scilly report.

I should perhaps add that it was not the text I questioned (quotes from Neil Hulme) but the photo.

Jack

The first iteration of that Painted lady story I saw a couple of day ago on facebook did use an 'ordinary' Painted Lady image. It would seem they've since re-edited it, (at Patrick Barkhams insistance )!

[David M]

Sigh! An all too familiar occurrence.

There's no excuse for it. All one needs to do is type the name 'Large Tortoiseshell' into Google (or other search engines).

[MrSp0ck]

Got my copy of the book today, very useful, as i and a few others will have to search over 45 acres for early stages of Black-veined White in a couple of months, and the lovely photographs are a great help. The map of BVW also shows BVWs used to occur on our site?[in the area, barings taken from the level of Sand Point and up from brighton] as a localised colony in the past.

[Matsukaze]

Got my copy of the book today, very useful, as i and a few others will have to search over 45 acres for early stages of Black-veined White in a couple of months, and the lovely photographs are a great help. The map of BVW also shows BVWs used to occur on our site?[in the area, barings taken from the level of Sand Point and up from brighton] as a localised colony in the past.

"...discovered in good numbers at Combe Wood, Croydon..." around 1816.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... rfly_fauna

[MrSp0ck]

Thanks for the info, although the Author of it has been discredited by Surrey Butterfly Conservation and others in recent years, due to his deleting of valid records {they have to be re-added in after he has removed them causing a lot of extra work for the County Records], following his departure from Butterfly Conservation. There are a lot of Errors in his article re Glanville Fritillary, it is on the list of 1717 records from the Addington/West Wickham area, which was then regarded as Dulwich which is a few miles away, Addington Palace was the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury for many years too. In those times places were often very vague. the 1717 White Admiral was "Wickham East of Croydon" which is the "Three-halfpeeny Wood/ Sparrows Den complex" on the Kent/Surrey Border.

Surrys Butterflies are now mapped by a different County Recorder, under Butterfly Conservation, and the mapping done on this link
https://butterflies2022.s3.eu-west-2.am ... /Main.html

[MrSp0ck]

The Surrey County Recorder has also been deleting all records of Essex/Small Skippers [amongst others] as they are not identified on the Transects, all the work done by the transect walkers,

this arrived today

The County Butterfly Recorder has taken the decision to reject these aggregate records on the grounds that they are not identified to species level. The notifications give the impression that the Small/Essex records have been removed from the system, have no value and that therefore there would be no point in recording them.

[MrSp0ck]

The previous Surrey Butterfly county recorder has now gone, and been replaced within Surrey Butterfly Conservation, the previous one was discredited although papers by him are still around, but should only be taken for their comic value.