Hi James,

I live at Shimoni, 80 kms south of Likoni, Mombasa. I was returning from Mombasa on 
Wednesday 21st February in the afternoon - 3.30 - 4 p.m. and noticed a lot of these 
butterflies all along the road towards the turn off to Kwale.
Yesterday Friday 23rd February I was driving from Diani to Tiwi at about midday and 
again there were a good number of these butterflies along the road  and again in the 
afternoon returning to Shimoni. Once I had passed Diani, the butterflies stopped, 
obviously they had not yet reached there yet. The butterflies were spread out, rather than 
in close bunches, but plenty of them.

I have not seen this congregation of butterflies down here for some years. We have had 
them in the past, I remember out at sea in 1969 when the weather was very odd, the 
Kaskasi virtually failed and we only blew for two weeks in the last two weeks of January, 
and therefore the fishing was very poor, and we amused ourselves butterfly watching, 
there were millions of them out in the Pemba Channel. We have had other years when 
there have been similar concentrations in Tsavo National Park when we have been 
driving to Nairobi and you drove through non stop butterflies!! This was usually April.

Regards,
Maia Hemphill   

To:             	<tanzaniabirds@yahoogroups.com>
Copies to:      	<kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com>
From:           	"James Alan Wolstencroft" <consultnature@bol.co.tz>
Date sent:      	Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:38:55 +0300
Subject:        	[KENYABIRDSNET] Belenois spp. the 'Caper Whites'

> Hi there Neil & Liz,
> 
> Could anyone on the TZ or Kenya bird group who noted anything at all
> (electronically, 
> 
> on paper, or just mentally) about the recent Brown-veined White
> butterfly
> 
> southward movement send those details to me; and I will forward them
> to Torben Larsen et
> 
> al.
> 
> 
> 
> AND NOT via Nobby Cordeiro please as suggested previously.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks a lot,
> 
> James
> 
> 
> 
> www.birds.intanzania.com 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Farm 510, Kiranyi via Kwaiidi, Arusha (TZ)
> 
> 
> 
> +255-(0)-784-596-209
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> 
> 
> I really hope we can get as much data in as suggested in my CAN YOU
> HELP? appeal, which I again attach. Please do circulate this to anyone
> who has an interest in nature.
> 
> 
> 
> Migrations are a regular feature of many dry zone butterflies, but the
> present event was obviously much larger than normal. 
> 
> 
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> 
> 
> Torben
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "The area and duration of this Belenois movement in TZ and Kenya would
> seem to be extraordinary.
> 
> 
> 
> I first became aware of the B-v White et al. migration on Tuesday
> afternoon February 6 as I drove with Jack & Kathy Wigan towards
> Chalinze from the Saadani junction.
> 
> 
> 
> Returning from Dar to Arusha the next day (7/2/07) they were an almost
> constant feature as they crossed the main road more or less southwards
> during almost the entire journey.
> 
> 
> 
> Vast numbers were also present on the Angyata Osugat on February 13
> nectaring on the flowering Acacia mellifera. 
> 
> Huge numbers, frequently reminding me of highland snow storms in
> mid-May (Scotland), have been passing through Kwaiidi in western
> Arusha (and also southwards at Maweni farm (at 1000m) and thus they
> are therefore easily crossing the West Usambara barrier too) all this
> week, especially on Wednesday 14 and today Thursday 15 in Arusha.
> 
> 
> 
> My hero Torben Larsen says:
> 
> "Some migrants are able to build up spectacular populations in a very
> short time, far surpassing the density of sedentary species. In
> addition, they may avoid their normal predators, whose numbers cannot
> increase fast enough to take advantage of the temporary surfeit of
> potential prey. There was hardly any mortality due to parasites or
> disease among the more than 500,000 Caper Whites (Anaphaeis [=
> Belenois] aurota) which hatched in May 1981 in a wadi in Oman."
> 
> 
> 
> Watch those skies, as always!
> 
> 
> 
> James"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pat and Maia Hemphill
Sea Adventures Ltd., P.O. Box 348, Ukunda, Kenya
Tel : +254 40 52220
Fax : + 254 41 227675
Email : pat_maia@bigame.com
Website : http://www.bigame.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~