Though I love many things about the coming of autumn, it is also a time when many other things I love disappear for the year. The butterflies are one of those things. Gone now are the gorgeous Gatekeepers (Pyronia tithonus) that kept me company during my frequent wanders around my local cemetery.

Gone too is the pale, subtle beauty of the Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni). Though I searched for more, I saw only one this year, at the Parc Slip Nature Reserve.

I have noticed, over the past couple of weeks, a little resurgence of Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta), as they feast on the ivy flowers that are just beginning to bloom here in Cardiff and are providing a late season banquet for bees, hoverflies and butterflies. All too soon, these creatures will also fade away, hopefully to come again in the springtime when the temperatures begin to rise and the days to lengthen.