NFY: Grayling

30 Thursday Jul 2026

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British butterflies, Butterflies in King Barrow Quarry, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Grayling, Grayling butterfly, Hipparchia semele, King Barrow Quarry, Tout Quarry

This is the last post from my recent mini-break in Weymouth, another first butterfly sighting for 2026 from my first meander around the former quarries on the Isle of Portland. These are, of course, Graylings (Hipparchia semele).

By happy coincidence, the Graylings had just started emerging when I visited. During my first walk around Tout and King Barrow quarries, on 9 July, I only saw two of these cryptically coloured butterflies. Just two days later, another quarry exploration produced more than 20 Graylings, with several flitting around me at once in one particular location, much to my delight.

I usually take the train up one of the local Welsh valleys to Aberbargoed coal spoil tip in July to see the only local population of these butterflies that is accessible to me as a non-driver. This year, with much of Britain sweltering under our third heatwave of the year, I haven’t made that trek, so I was even more grateful to have seen such numbers of Grayling in Dorset.

NFY: Chalkhill blue

24 Friday Jul 2026

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British butterflies, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Chalkhill blue, Female Chalkhill blue, Lysandra coridon, male Chalkhill blue

A July visit to Dorset’s south coast was always intended to be about butterflies (and dragonflies) rather than birds, and so it proved to be. I missed seeing one of my target butterfly species; the Silver-studded blues seem to have been affected by this year’s continuing heatwaves, beginning their season earlier than usual and only reported flying on Portland for about four weeks, a much shorter period than usual. Try as I might, and despite getting great advice from locals, I failed to find any. But their absence was more than made up for by the Chalkhill blues (Lysandra coridon).

I think you’ll agree that these are stunningly beautiful butterflies. The silvery blue of the male is more subtle and delicate than the flashy brilliance of the Adonis blue, while the female’s upper wings are a rich chocolate brown, often with a sprinkling of blue close to her body.

My photographs here show, in descending order, a female with wings closed, showing the underside patterning and colouration; a female with open wings; a male with closed wings, showing his underside colours; and, finally, an open-winged male.

Despite the heat, I wandered Tout and King Barrow, the former quarries on the Isle of Portland, several times during this visit and, each time, I was rewarded with an increasing number of pristine sightings of these stunning butterflies, as they continued to emerge from pupation. I was in butterfly heaven, even though it felt hotter than hell!

NFY: Marbled white

20 Monday Jul 2026

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black-and-white butterflies, British butterflies, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Lavernock Nature Reserve, Marble white, Melanargia galathea

Amazingly, I didn’t see my first Marbled white (Melanargia galathea) of the year during my recent week on the south coast of Dorset, nor during any other recent jaunts away from home. Though this butterfly species is not resident locally, my first sighting this year was on 29 June just a couple of miles from home at Lavernock Nature Reserve. Even more surprisingly, I didn’t see just one, but rather two of these stunning butterflies, and a couple of local chaps I talked to had seen six (!) the previous day. As we had just experienced our second heatwave of the year, from the 22nd to the 25th of June, it’s likely that these butterflies had been blown across the Bristol Channel from England on the hot nor’easterly winds we experienced during those few days.

I love these stunningly patterned butterflies so I was very pleased to have timed my latest visit to Weymouth and the Isle of Portland with their peak flying time of mid June to mid July. Despite my visit also coinciding with our third heatwave of the year (I’d booked my travel several months earlier), by leaving my guesthouse before 7am, I still managed to spend many hours over several days wandering around the disused quarries on Portland, thrilled to be surrounded by these, and many other, butterfly species.

In his Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, Peter Eeles explains that the aposematic colouring of this black-and-white butterfly is thought to deter potential predators, the flavonoids from the food ingested by its larva making both larva and adult taste bad. Eeles also notes that these flavonoids ‘make the butterfly more visible to potential to potential mates thanks to the ultra-violet reflection from the flavonoid-rich white areas that contrast with the blacks on the wings’. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see what the butterflies see?

If you’re wondering why the Marbled whites in some of my photos have a brown hue that’s because the female of the species, though still having the black-and-white marbling on her upper wings, exhibits a pale brown tint on the undersides and on the leading edge of her forewings.

NFY: Adonis blue

23 Saturday May 2026

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Adonis blue, blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Isle of Portland butterflies, Polyommatus bellargus

As the Adonis blue (Polyommatus bellargus) uses Horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) as its larval food plant, it can only be found where that species of vetch grows, which in turn means the majority of this butterfly’s colonies are restricted to certain locations in southern England, specifically ‘in the core areas of chalk downland in Dorset, Wiltshire, Sussex and the Isle of Wight’, according to Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies. (Horseshoe vetch will feature in tomorrow’s blog post.)

The restriction imposed by its larval plant means I never see this butterfly in Wales, and so, last week, on the Isle of Portland, was only the fourth time I’d seen the stunning cobalt blue upper wings of the male Adonis blue.

And, as this was the very start of their 2026 season – there are two generations of adults each year, the first fly in May-June, the second in August-September – I only saw three individuals, all males. The females emerge a little later than the males, so, due to poor timing on my part, I’ve only once seen a female Adonis blue, back in August 2019, during a visit to the Malling Down Reserve in East Sussex. Though I already have another trip to Weymouth and Portland booked, that will be in July, so I will once again miss seeing any females. I intend trying to remedy that omission next year, as I would very much like to be present when more of these little stunners are in flight, both male and female.

A proliferation of Peacocks

01 Wednesday Apr 2026

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British butterflies, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Peacock, Peacock butterflies

Let’s have a break from all the bird blogs (there are more insects coming next week, I promise).

Just as Friday 20 March was The day of the Wheatears, so Wednesday 18 March – a bright sunny day – was the day of the Peacocks.

A strong cool easterly was blowing across Weymouth and Portland that day but, in sheltered areas, the sun was warm and temperatures rose to the mid teens (Celsius), encouraging insects to emerge.

These were my first Peacocks of 2026, and there were a lot of them: two flitted up from the flowering Blackthorn trees as I walked a circuit of RSPB Lodmoor; four were found basking on the rocks in King Barrow Quarry and another three in the more exposed Tout Quarry; and I found five along the paths of RSPB Radipole late afternoon. I was in butterfly heaven!

Adonis blues

11 Monday Aug 2025

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Adonis blue, blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Isle of Portland butterflies, Polyommatus bellargus

In classical antiquity, Adonis was celebrated as the epitome of male beauty. I presume, when writing in his publication British Butterflies in 1860, W. S. Coleman named this striking butterfly the Adonis blue, he considered it was the epitome of male beauty in the world of British butterflies. Though lacking the elaborate patterning of many British butterflies, the sheer brilliance of the colour of the male Adonis blue (Polyommatus bellargus) is breathtaking.

Fortunately for me, this butterfly has two broods each year so, though I missed the first in May-June, I timed my visit to Weymouth perfectly for the very start of the emergence of the second brood in August-September. I only managed to see two males, no females (which have chocolate brown upper wings, tinged with varying amounts of blue) but, as these sightings were only the third time I’d seen any Adonis blues, I was very happy indeed!