View allAll Photos Tagged Springwatch
While watching Springwatch this year I was surprised to hear Chris Packham say that he had not seen Spotted Flycatchers since childhood. The population has declined by 92% since his childhood (1967) but it still surprised me that he hadn't seen any. I too have noticed a massive decline here in the Pennines. They used to be common, and now they are not. But I still chance upon a breeding pair or two each year, and I see passage birds, usually juveniles in the autumn. I'm assuming the decline in southern England has been even more severe than here in the north. The causes of the decline have proved elusive but research suggests poor survival of juveniles may be the issue. There has been no significant change in nest success rates and the number of fledglings per nest shows no trend. Juvenile survival could be affected before migration, during migration, or on the African wintering grounds.
butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/orange-tip
Common and widespread, this medium sized butterfly can be found in gardens and hedgerows.
The males are unmistakeable; white butterflies with bright orange wing tips. The females are white with black wing tips. Both have mottled green underwings.
The Small White is very similar to the female, but lacks the underwing markings. Discover how to identify white butterflies with this handy guide.
Size and Family
Family: Whites and yellows
Size: Medium
Wing Span Range (male to female): 45-50mm
Conservation Status
Butterfly Conservation priority: Low
European status: Not threatened
Caterpillar Foodplants
Several crucifers are used, especially Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis) in damp meadows and Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) along road verges and ditches. Occasionally, it uses Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), Winter-cress (Barbarea vulgaris), Turnip (Brassica rapa), Charlock (Sinapis avensis), Large Bitter-cress (C. amara), and Hairy Rock-cress (Arbis hirsuta). In addition, it lays its eggs on Honesty (Lunaria annua) and Dame's-violet (Hesperis matronalis) in gardens, but larval survival is thought to be poor on these plants.
Habitat
Orange-tips prefer damp habitats such as meadows, woodland glades, hedgerows and the banks of streams and rivers, but readily visit gardens.
Distribution
Countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
Widespread throughout Britain and Ireland, having spread considerably in Scotland over the past 30 years
www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?species=cardamines
Life Cycle
There is a single brood each year, with adults flying from the beginning of April, through May and into June. In exceptionally early years a small second brood may appear.
Finally!!!...It's the first day of spring 2022. And what a fantastic day it was here in the UK as I spent a few hours out and about on Greenham Common in Berkshire.
This youngster must be from an earlier brood to yesterdays post as there only appeared to be one parent bird.
Moorhen - Gallinula
Hesketh Farm Park, Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, UK.
As always I extend my sincere appreciation to all those who take the time to stop by and comment on my photos.
DSC_5783. Explore # 103. 5th July 2019.
A tiny, nimble, curious and quick British Wren taken yesterday at a rainy Springwatch 2018 location of Sherbourne Park in Gloucestershire. This little one was great fun to watch, entertaining me for quite some time by repeatedly disappearing and then popping up again nearby, little tail bobbing.....
I have just returned from a trip abroard (more of this at a later date) to find this flickr mail -
Thank you for adding your image to the BBC Springwatch Official Flickr group - I am writing to let you know that we selected your image for use in last night’s Unsprung programme.
If you weren’t able to catch the show live yesterday you can watch it on the BBC Springwatch website here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07dx2t8
Best wishes
***************
BBC Springwatch Unsprung Production Team . .................................. What a nice thing to to find !!!!! . This popular nature programme was shown on U.K national television at eight in the evening on BBC 2 and the episode number is number 9 . The above picture is not a re post but two frames ahead of the featured image
On a whim I took time to look at my insect hotel which rarely does much because the woodpeckers swoop in to take the grubs. Well this year they haven't and the hotel isn't taking any more bookings - it is full of solitary bees. If ever there was any doubt about the importance of these bees to pollination have a look at this insect.