Tag Archives: butterfly

First butterfly of 2024

23 Tuesday Jan 2024

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I was sitting in a train carriage heading home, paused just outside of Cardiff Queen Street Station because of a points failure, gazing idly out of the window when, to my utter amazement, there came a fluttering of black and red on the other side of the glass – a Red admiral! It was a cold day but, in sheltered spots, the sun was quite warm – warm enough, obviously, to have roused this brave creature from its winter slumbers. The Red admiral was the last butterfly I saw in 2023, on 20 November, and is now the first seen in 2024, on 18 January. I was too slow, and the train began to move forward, so I didn’t get a photo of this first sighting – the image below is from one my last sightings last year.

240123 red admiral 231023

P is for Painted lady

21 Thursday Dec 2023

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I saw my first Painted lady of 2023 on 15 May and my last on 3 October which, when I look back over the past five years of my records, is about the usual date range. This year, here in south Wales, they were most numerous during September but this was not a year of large numbers – the last major Painted lady influx, according to my numbers, was 2019, when I was astonished to see over 50 of these beauties in one field at a local nature reserve. I miss the butterflies – of all species – when they disappear during the colder months and can’t wait to start seeing them again in 2024.

231221 painted lady

H is for hairstreaks

13 Wednesday Dec 2023

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H is for hairstreaks, purple and green. For me, 2023 was a particularly good year for Purple hairstreaks. On 21 July, in Purple sheen, I blogged about those I had already seen at Lavernock Nature Reserve and at Casehill Woods, but I was lucky to see them in three more locations, at Ystrad Mynach on 25 July, in Dingle Park on 27 July, and finally one at Cosmeston on 1 August. The photos below are from my Ystrad Mynach encounter, where I almost stood on a Purple hairstreak that had been blown on to the pavement in front of me from its large Oak tree across the narrow busy road, probably by the many passing high-sided trucks. After taking a few photographs, I took the tiny creature back across the road and placed it as near to its tree as I could reach.

231213 purple hairstreak

There are no local places to see Green hairstreaks so I was particularly delighted in June to see my first in four years (A streak of green), at Charlton Kings Common just outside Cheltenham.

231213 green hairstreak

I also enjoyed a lovely encounter with a White-letter hairstreak this year but thought I’d highlight in this blog the Purple (for those special in-the-hand moments) and the Green (for the first sighting in so long).

Small white on purple

15 Sunday Oct 2023

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I had something different planned for today but ‘the best laid plans’ and all that. So, here is the first scene that greeted when I arrived at the local country park this chilly autumn morning, a lovely little Small white butterfly sipping from a pretty purple Common knapweed flower.

Clouded yellow incoming

27 Wednesday Sep 2023

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A bit of butterfly magic happened yesterday when I was birding on Cardiff Bay’s Barrage. I’d just managed to get quite close to one of three Wheatears feeding on insects in the grass and had headed back to the path that runs along the top of the Barrage when I noticed something small and very yellow-looking flying in from the sea side of the rocks, across the road and the path I was standing on, then down in to the grassy area I’d just left. I followed it down the slope as quickly as I could, watching to see where it landed. And there it was, sitting quietly as if resting, a Clouded yellow butterfly, only my second of the year and the first I’ve been able to get photographs of. Just brilliant!

230927 clouded yellow

Enjoying the scabious

17 Sunday Sep 2023

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Monday’s blog featured the typical late summer/early autumn sight of a Meadow brown feasting on Devil’s-bit scabious. It’s one of the few plants that flower in abundance at this time of year at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and, as you can see below, the east paddock is a sea of purple.

230917 scabious (1)

On Wednesday I noticed that the previous week’s heat had brought a small influx of Painted ladies, and counted four during my walk along one edge of the paddock. I’m sure there were, in fact, many more.

230917 scabious painted lady (2)

And, during Friday’s wander, the migrating Red admirals were pausing in the field to fuel their journey with slurps of scabious nectar. It’s such a valuable plant for the insects at this time of year.

230917 scabious red admiral (3)

A surprise Silver-washed fritillary

14 Monday Aug 2023

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I’d seen a second generation Dingy skipper; got close enough to a migrating Redstart for some reasonable photos; watched Whin- and Stonechats and a Tree pipit insect-catching in the tree plantation; spotted my first Migrant hawker of the year; and was just heading in to the woodland, hot and homeward bound, feeling very pleased with what the day’s walk had turned up, when this happened.

230814 silver-washed fritillary (1)

As if materialising from thin air, this Silver-washed fritillary floated along the path beside me, before settling on the ground almost at my feet. I was amazed! Singles of these butterflies have very occasionally been spotted in Cosmeston’s Cogan Wood but never before by me, despite my having walked every inch of the various paths that thread their way through the trees. It was the perfect end to a perfect day in Nature!

230814 silver-washed fritillary (2)