Tags
British butterflies, butterfly, Essex skipper, Gatekeeper, Painted Lady, Silver-washed fritillary, White-letter hairstreak
During the three days from to 25 to 28 June I saw six new species of butterfly: Gatekeeper, White-letter hairstreak, Essex skipper, White admiral, Silver-washed fritillary and Painted lady. Seeing so many in such a short time was an amazing experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent watching each and every one of them.
Disappointingly, the only ones I can show you reasonable images of are the Gatekeeper (above) and the Painted lady (below).
The other species were either flitting around high in the tree tops (White-letter hairstreak), paused for the briefest of moments on some flowers before disappearing in to the farm field behind (Essex skipper), weren’t stopping for a moment in their endless quest for a female (a Silver-washed fritillary exits stage left), or weren’t stopping at all ever (not even a blurry photo of the two White admirals I saw).
earthstar 
The white-letter hairstreak is one of the reasons why more elms have been planted in North Cardiff to hopefully increase the populations.
The first record of the Essex skipper in Wales was observed on Hailey Park too (by our ranger). Lovely to see so many different butterflies out now
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Yes, I knew about the Wych elms being planted, and most of them are the disease-resistant varieties to try to stop them being hit by Dutch elm disease.
Your ranger may have found the first Essex in the Cardiff area – that was in 2010, but the first Welsh record was in Pembrokeshire back in 1980, and it was recorded in many other areas before it was seen in Cardiff. It’s amazing how these tiny butterflies manage to spread relatively quickly. 🙂
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