According to my recently acquired Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies (Peter Eeles, Pisces Publications, 2019 – if you like butterflies, this new book is a must!), the Wall was once known as ‘the golden marbled Butterfly, with black eyes’ – such a wonderfully descriptive name!

Wall butterflies are not common in my part of south Wales (they’ve suffered severe declines throughout Britain in recent years) so I was absolutely delighted, during Sunday’s bird club trip to Steart Marshes, to see not one but three of these lovely creatures. The first was braving the blasting wind along the coastal path at the edge of Bridgwater Bay and there were two more enjoying the much more sheltered warmth of the car park near Steart village, flitting from dandelion to dandelion in their quest for nectar.

Though the butterfly on the coastal path looked a little battered – understandably, given its exposed position, the two Walls in the car park looked very fresh so, although the Wall usually has only two generations a year, I assume these were part of a third generation that can sometimes appear in early September.