In The Beginning
My interest in wildlife goes back to when I was a child. During my early teens, I became more aware of plants and animals I encountered while out walking with my Parents and Granddad. In particular, it was my time spent with my Granddad walking the wild lanes near his home in Hinckley, Leicestershire. Every Sunday, my parents would take my brother and I to visit Grandma and Granddad and when the weather was fine we would take a walk 'up the lanes'. Its here where I would hunt for caterpillars. My parents would always take me to wildlife sites during the weekends too.
Teenage Years
My interest in wildlife stopped almost completely in my later teens being more interested in playing Saturday and Sunday league football and hockey for my town. I then studied art and design at college before going on to study archaeology at Bradford University. After my graduation, I worked as an archaeological illustrator for the Museum of London, and later Oxford Archaeology... having little time or interest in wildlife.
A Renewed Interest
With the advent of digital cameras, things changed, I could record my sightings and before long my general interest in wildlife and in particular butterflies re-surfaced. Since 2001, my interest has grown, to such an extent that almost every weekend, my time is spent with my partner Debbie visiting some place or other searching for butterflies and other wildlife. Every holiday (including since 2001, the Lake District, Norfolk, Isle of Wight, Northumberland and Pembrokeshire) is timed to coincide with a particular butterfly species and we are both actively involved in the committee of Warwickshire Branch of Butterfly Conservation as their joint newsletter editors and as their web site manager. Visit the Warwickshire Branch Butterfly Conservation web site at: http://www.warwickshire-butterflies.org.uk. Debbie is also an essential part of the development of this web site proof reading the text and pointing out my many grammar and spelling mistakes.
Our interest in Butterflies takes us to some of the most beautiful places in the UK and its an activity which certainly keeps you fit. While most butterflies tend to fly away as I approach, the complete opposite is true for Debbie (see photo below) who regularly has much closer encounters with these wonderful creatures. We often bump into like minded people who are interested in nature... and it seems that certain people (Lepidopterists... 'Leppers' for short) seem to know that we are looking for butterflies... with the inevitable introductory question... 'seen anything interesting yet??' I think we must have that 'certain look' about us! To stop and chat to these people helps us to learn more about the places we visit while passing on our own experinces and sightings.
Conservation
My interest, apart from the sheer beauty of these fragile insects, is fuelled by the clear and compelling evidence that butterflies are key indicators of the state of our wild environment. Our butterflies have suffered from our general greed in a country dominated by roads and excessive road building schemes, industrial warehouses which blot our landscape and towns and cities expanding into green-belt land. Even today, somewhere in the UK an important wildlife site, designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is probably threatened by some form of 'development'. It is time for our Government, Local Authorities, MP's and individuals to take responsibility for our actions by changing the way we behave in order to minimise our impact upon the environment. [+] read more
Above: Steven Cheshire at
Ryton Wood near Coventry.
Above: Debbie gets a close-up view of a
Dark Green Fritillary on Whitbarrow Scar, Cumbria.
Above: Debbie and I in the Brecon Beacons...
with essential picnic... can of beer included!
Above: Not a butterfly in sight!!
A snow storm in Lathkill Dale, Derbyshire.
All text, photographs, images & other graphic elements used on this web site are copyright Steven Cheshire 2000 -
unless otherwise stated.
