Ringlet Butterfly

Before the weather turned nasty I walked Fizz and I got these shots of a Ringlet. This Butterfly is a little bit faded and worn but probably the best we can hope for now. Flight time for these Butterflies is mid June until the beginning of August. Apart from the short time when they are an egg they spend most of the year as a caterpillar. From around about now until next June they will be crawling around on a variety of grasses being larvae and of course this one hibernates as a caterpillar.

Ringlet

This was the Butterfly that got my attention today and started off my Butterfly mood. It was special for me because I didn’t have any pictures of Ringlets. I am not sure why, it is quite common and I have seen them before but … No Ringlet collection so it is time to start one.

I am afraid that this butterfly might look a bit dull after the last two but that is partly down to the fact that it was a pretty dull and overcast day and that is very appropriate for a post about the Ringlet.

Ringlets are very dark coloured butterflies and they warm up quickly. Butterflies can not fly unless they are warm but Ringlets seem to prefer shade and avoid the heat of the sun, so they do fly on dull days when there isn’t much else about.. They also seek out shady places and you would not expect to find one out in an open meadow.

Flight time is now until early August. They lay their eggs on various grasses and nectar on Bramble and Thistle.

I like the little brown ones.

Animal Magic

“Just like that”

It’s your destiny

The Swallows have fledged, or at least they are fledging. They are still in the nest today but they have been out and they can fly.

It has taken me a few days watching and all that you get are a couple of short video’s but for me, my understanding and the pleasure that I got from watching them makes a few days just a drop in the ocean. It was time well spent.

Anyway you should be glad that you don’t have to watch the whole twenty hours of video, that I now have to sort and delete from my machine to free up space.

Here are the best bits.

Yesterday morning there were five birds on the nest, there were five birds on the nest and then there were four birds on the nest. I had missed the very first flight and only realised when number five returned to the nest.

This first video starts with the mother calling for them to leave the nest, there is a little comic interlude of the way that they follow flies, their little heads bobbing in unison and in the last bit the second bird to approach the nest is the returning chick. Does he bring food back or do the others just think that he has?

This next video shows them leaving the nest and returning. They spent most of the day fluttering around inside the little alley way that has become their home and by the end of the day they were all settled back on the nest but this is fledging. Today I think that they have ventured outside and seen the blue sky but they still return to the nest.

These birds have made me think a lot about nature as a whole thing and about life and death in the wild. The caterpillars that I am trying to raise are falling to the parasitoid flies that these Swallows depend on for food and survival. The parents have done a really good job of raising them given the wet weather we have been having. I have often looked out in the pouring rain and wondered how they are managing to raise a brood and now this, flight.

I am so in in love and in awe of them and so damned jealous.

I am jealous because they get to eat those delicious crunchy flies, or perhaps because they can raise offspring in a matter of weeks and not the 26 years it usually takes us. Maybe I am jealous of something else altogether…..