22 Wednesday Sep 2021
Soon, these gorgeous Commas will be looking for places to hibernate.
But first they need to stock up on nectar, to increase their energy reserves to help them survive the cold winter months.
Brambles are perfect, their berries plentiful, widespread, easily accessible, juicy, delicious.
And, when the berries are very ripe and begin to ferment, butterflies like these Commas can become more than a little tipsy as they drink.
15 Wednesday Sep 2021
Remember yesterday’s The last Small copper?
Well, I wrote the first part of that post last week, then, a couple of days later, was dazzled by the glinting of another Small copper at a different location. Will there be more, I wonder?
14 Tuesday Sep 2021
Posted in insects
As I walk slowly along a narrow footpath between tall stands of meadowsweet and willowherbs, thistles and fleabane, I catch, out of the corner of my eye, a fleeting flash of orange, and quickly turn my head towards it, follow it, try desperately not to lose sight of it. I’m in luck. It settles, turns, opens its wings. And I don’t know whether to be overjoyed to see this most unexpected, glistening Small copper or saddened at the thought that this will, in all probability, be my last Small copper sighting of the year.
17 Tuesday Aug 2021
Posted in insects, nature photography
Tags
British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue butterfly, macro photography, Meadow Brown, practising macro photography, Speckled wood
I mostly use my Olympus camera for macro photographs, and to get crisp shots I need to get within an inch or two of the subject. As you can imagine, a lot of little creatures are alarmed by a large animal looming over them with a camera so, from time to time, I use one of my daily walks to practise my stealth. After a couple of false starts yesterday, I was very pleased to get up close to these three butterflies – a Common blue, a Meadow brown and a Speckled wood – as the macro photos give such good detail of the anatomy of these beautiful butterflies.
12 Thursday Aug 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
Adain garpiog, British butterflies, butterfly, C-falter, Comma, Comma butterfly, Robert-le-Diable
With the precision we can rely on from the Germans, the Comma is called the C-falter, the C butterfly. In France it is known as Robert-le-Diable, Robert the devil, which, according to a 2017 article in the Guardian newspaper, ‘is also the name of a favourite 19th-century Centifolia rose with a unique purple-cerise-scarlet-grey flower and a wonderful old rose fragrance; an 1831 opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer about the moral redemption of the son of a mortal and a demon; and the father of William the Conqueror, who was said to be the son of the Devil.’ Why the Comma also bears this name the Guardian writer does not specify. Here in Wales the Comma is appropriately named Adain garpiog, which translates as raggedy wing.
07 Saturday Aug 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
British butterflies, Brown argus, butterfly, butterflying, mud-puddling, puddling, the brown blue butterfly
According to my Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, William Lewin named this butterfly the ‘Brown blue’ in his 1795 publication The Papilios of Great Britain, but its current name comes from the earlier 1702 work Gazophylacium naturae et artis by James Pettiver, who gave it the name the ‘edg’d brown Argus’. The argus part of the Brown argus’s name comes from ‘the many-eyed shepherd of Greek mythology, which is a reference to the numerous spots on the butterfly’s underside’.
The beauties in my photos are from this year’s second generation of Brown argus, seen in two locations earlier this week. I only saw three of the first generation back in June as, like many local butterflies, their numbers were well down after a very wet spring. I’m hoping this second brood fares better.
I was interested, and just a little revolted, when I watched one of these Brown argus butterflies stocking up on nutrients, probably salts and amino acids, by slurping at a damp mixture of mud and horse pooh, an activity known as puddling or mud-puddling. Don’t try this at home!
04 Wednesday Aug 2021
Posted in insects
The second generation of Holly blue butterflies has now hatched and the males can be seen whizzing rapidly along the hedgerows and woodland ride edges in search of a mate. Fortunately, this one paused for a short time so I was able to get a few photos. For more information on their two annual broods and the switch from Holly to Ivy as their larval food plants, see my earlier post Holly blues, the second generation, August 2018.
24 Saturday Jul 2021
Posted in insects
Considering the Marbled white butterfly (Melanargia galathea) thrives in tall grasses, growing in calcareous unimproved grasslands, in woodland clearings and rides, in disused quarries and roadside verges, I always expect to find them in my part of south Wales. But they are rare here, my very occasional sightings consisting of rapid fly-bys and distant record-only photos like the one below.
So, getting close views of this beauty during my trip to Slade Woods last week was a lovely surprise, not from within the woodland itself, but rather at the edge of a farmland footpath on my way back to the train.
Though it may seem difficult to believe when you look at its colouring, the Marbled white butterfly is a member of the ‘brown’ group of butterflies that also includes those that are recognisably brown (Speckled wood, Meadow brown, Ringlet, etc).
23 Friday Jul 2021
Posted in insects
My first visit to Slade Wood last week, though a wonderful wander, did not produce any sightings of the particular butterfly I was hoping for. So, when I read on Twitter that evening that they had been seen in a particular spot, and knowing that these butterflies can be territorial so would probably be faithful to that location, I just had to go back for another look. And I’m so very glad I did.
By sheer coincidence, Frank, the person who had provided the site details, was there when I revisited Slade Wood last Friday. We had brief views of one butterfly but it wasn’t until I met Frank again along the main woodland ride that we had these exceptionally close views of another.
The butterfly, the one true glider of the 59 British butterfly species, is a White admiral (Limenitis camilla) and, as it was patrolling a small territory and defending that territory from other, passing butterflies, it was probably a male. It was amazingly confiding, and I felt incredibly fortunate to be able to observe this gorgeous creature so closely.
19 Monday Jul 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
British butterflies, Butterflies of Oak woodlands, butterfly, butterflying, hairstreaks, Purple hairstreak
You may remember that at the end of May I made the surprise discovery of a Purple hairstreak butterfly larva in my local woodlands. Despite much searching I never found another but, as these butterflies are now on the wing, I’ve been keeping an eye out for any adults when I walk the woodland rides in that area.
And last week I found one … or, I should really say, it found me. I was focused on checking for butterflies flying high in the canopy of the Oak trees when a small grey-looking butterfly flitted close around my head and then disappeared into the branches next to the path. A few seconds later it reappeared and spent a few minutes, feeding on the honeydew on the leaves, before floating back up to the canopy again. A fanciful thought but it was almost like it was saying ‘Here I am. Look at me’, so I did.
Though these butterflies give a predominantly grey impression when you see them, they are named for the deep purple markings on their upper wings. You can catch just a glimpse of that vibrant colour in the photo above.
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