Butterfly catch up

02 Friday May 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Common blue butterfly, Dingy Skipper, Large white, Small copper, Spring colour

Just as it’s always magical to see my first butterfly of the year, so is it just as special each time I see the first of each new species. These are the four most recent beauties that have made me smile.

On 25 April my first Large white of 2025 flitted along the footpath next to me, sipped on a Dandelion, then settled on a Bramble leaf long enough for me to photograph.

The next butterfly species to appear for me locally, on 27 April, was this lovely Dingy skipper at an unexpected location – a bonus!

The last few days of hotter than usual temperatures have presumably triggered the early emergence of some species. This stunning male Common blue popped up on 28 April, five days earlier than my previous earliest date.

And, this very morning, eight days earlier than I’ve ever seen one before, I caught a flash of brilliant orange and there sat this gorgeous Small copper, always a treat to see.

In long-term decline

24 Thursday Apr 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, declining butterfly populations, Green-veined white, Green-veined white butterfly, Pieris napi

The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme recently released its latest report on how our butterflies are faring, and, for the majority of the 58 British butterfly species, the news is not good.

The latest butterfly to emerge in my locale has been the Green-veined white (Pieris napi), which is described by the UKBMS as ‘stable’ but I’m not sure I’d agree with their definition of stable when these are the statistics they list:

Status since 1976 is Stable with a change of -23.1% since monitoring began for this species.
Status over the last 20 years is Stable with a change of -20.8%
Status over the last 10 years is Stable with a change of -35.7%

In fact, on social media, the Head of Science at Butterfly Conservation wrote: ‘One of the big shocks of last year’s UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme results was that, after its worst year on record in 2024 and a run of six below average years, Green-veined White (Pieris napi) is now in long-term decline.’ This seems a far better summary of the situation. So far, I’ve only seen these two Green-veined whites this year; fingers crossed I manage to see more.

Small zooming Orange-tips

15 Tuesday Apr 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, male Orange-tip, Orange-tip

As I write this, a weather warning has just come into force, potentially bringing thunder, lightning and heavy rain from midday today until midday tomorrow. These warnings don’t always produce the forecast downpours but I feel for all the newly emerged small creatures, especially the delicate butterflies like this little Orange-tip. Of all the small Orange-tip males I’ve recently seen zooming along the hedgerows and banks of wildflowers, desperately seeking females, this one finally paused long enough to refuel, which allowed me to quickly snap a few photos. I hope he, and all his butterfly cousins, manage to find sufficient shelter to survive any deluges.

What an effort!

11 Friday Apr 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly eggs, butterfly eggs on nettle, Peacock, Peacock butterfly, Peacock butterfly eggs, Peacock butterfly laying eggs, Stinging nettle

As I write this, my fingers are still stinging. And none of my photos are sharp, partly because ‘Ouch!’ but also because I didn’t want to disturb the clutch so was trying to move the leaf as little as possible. But, when I watched their beautiful mother laying the first of these yesterday, I knew I had to go back today to see how many she’d produced.

And here she is, the gorgeous female Peacock butterfly, clinging on to a Stinging nettle leaf. You might just be able to see how her abdomen is curved up towards the underside of the leaf where she is depositing her eggs. My guide book tells me that a female Peacock ‘lays her eggs in batches of up to 400 eggs, a process that can take over two hours’. What an effort! I will, of course, be looking out for when the tiny caterpillars emerge, in approximately two weeks’ time.

Holly blue and Small white

09 Wednesday Apr 2025

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blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterfly, Holly blue, Small white, white butterflies

Two for the price of one today!
It’s always a joy to see the blue butterflies emerge; it’s like a tiny piece of the sky has fallen to earth and is flitting amongst the flowers and shrubs and along the trees and hedges. The first to appear locally are the Holly blues. My first, on 2 April, was in an unlikely place; as I walked past, it flitted out from the street-side hedge of a house a few streets away from where I live. There was no Holly or Ivy in sight but perhaps those larval plants were growing in a nearby back garden that I couldn’t see in to.

Next to appear, just a couple of days later, was a Small white that was already looking a bit tatty. It seems its short life was proving to be a challenge, escaping from bird attacks or, perhaps, getting snagged in vegetation. My second Small white was pristine, feeding along a field edge so abundant with Blackthorn blossom that the area had attracted six species of butterfly: as well as the Small white, there were Speckled wood, Comma, another Holly blue, Brimstone, and my first Orange-tip of 2025 (which will feature in a future blog, as soon as one stays still long enough for a photo).

Peacocks aplenty

04 Friday Apr 2025

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Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly

I didn’t see my first Peacock butterfly (Aglais io) of the year until 30 March, which is much later than usual – these are butterflies that overwinter as adults so can emerge from hibernation on warm sunny days even in winter. Now, just six days later, my count is up to eight, as we – and the butterflies – bask in a spell of unseasonally dry and warm spring weather.

I’ve discovered that, when I first see a new butterfly species each year, I have a tendency, a predilection, a need even to photograph every single one I see, as if taking their image makes them real – or perhaps it’s just my attempt to capture the heartfelt joy I feel at seeing butterflies on the wing, and relive that feeling when I’m looking at my photographs at home. After a few days, and having seen several, I begin to relax and focus more on taking better images – at least, I think the photograph below, taken today, is better than the earlier ones above.

Speckled woods on the wing

01 Tuesday Apr 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

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British butterflies, butterfly, Speckled wood, spring butterflies, Spring colour, Wood argus

Sunday was a brilliant day for butterflies, with my first three Speckled woods of the year, each in a different location, all basking on hedgerows and flitting out to defend their territories as I passed by.

With its rich chocolately brown background colour mixed with small circular dollops of creamy yellow, it’s almost like a living crème egg … or is my imagination just being overly affected by the bombarding of pre-Easter advertisements?

My brilliant guide book, Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, tells me that the Speckled wood was once called the Wood argus, the name Argus coming from the ‘many-eyed shepherd of Greek mythology’. That seems a very apt name for this beautiful creature.

Staring at willows

21 Friday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring, trees

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Bombus hypnorum, Bombus terrestris, Brimstone, British butterflies, Buff-tailed bumblebee, butterflies feeding on willow flowers, insects feeding on willow flowers, insects on willow, Small tortoiseshell, Tree bumblebee, willow

This is your occasional reminder, if you are interested in spotting flying insects, that it is a very good idea at this time of year, when the various willows (Salix species) are coming in to flower, to spend a little staring at these trees. That is partly how I came to find so many butterflies yesterday. Several of the Brimstones I saw, in particular the two females that were feeding up prior to egg-laying, and the beautiful Small tortoiseshell were all found initially on willow flowers.

The fluffy yellow flowers were also providing much needed sustenance for a variety of flies, for honey bees and hoverflies. Due to their larger size, I was also able to see at least two species of bumblebee, Buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) (left below) and Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) (below right).

Happy Spring!

20 Thursday Mar 2025

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Brimstone, British butterflies, butterfly, Comma, female Brimstone, Red Admiral, Small tortoiseshell

With a high temperature of 18º Celsius, the warmest day of the year so far, and lashings of sunshine, butterflies appeared as if by magic during this morning’s five-mile walk. In total, I spotted 13 butterflies of four species today, and it was simply enchanting. What better way to celebrate the vernal equinox than with a profusion of butterflies!

Brimstones were the most abundant, with nine seen. This gorgeous creature was my first female Brimstone of the year.

There were two Commas. One stayed high in the trees but this beauty was more obliging.

This Red admiral was looking quite tatty after surviving the long cold winter.

I was delighted to see this Small tortoiseshell, as they were very scarce here last year. At first, it was feeding high in a willow but my patience paid off when it came gliding down to perch on a nearby Bramble bush.

A ragged beauty

11 Tuesday Mar 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, Comma, Comma butterfly

After a long meander around Cosmeston Lakes Country Park earlier today, I was just leaving the last paddock to head home and, I admit, I was feeling a little disappointed not to have seen my first Sand martin and/or Wheatear of the year, when I spotted this ragged beauty perched on the hedge, my first Comma of the year. That certainly put a smile on my face!