Tag Archives: Dingy Skipper

NFY: Dingy skipper

06 Wednesday May 2026

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Monday week ago I had a lovely meander around Lavernock Nature Reserve, a local Wildlife Trust site perched on a cliff-top high above Lavernock Point and St Mary’s Well Bay on the edge of the Bristol Channel. It was a warm sunny day so I was hoping for lots of butterflies, and I was certainly not disappointed. In fact, I was thrilled when checking one of the places where I’d previously seen this particular butterfly species, to have my first Dingy skipper of the year pop up to defend its little piece of dirt. And, since then, I’ve also seen more – four one day, one the next – during walks around Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.

Butterfly catch up

02 Friday May 2025

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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.

D is for Dingy skipper

09 Monday Dec 2024

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Ah, butterflies! How I miss their magical presence during the winter months.
I wrote about seeing my first Dingy skipper of the year on 10 May (Delayed Dingy) but my best photos of this often under-appreciated butterflies were taken a week later when I managed to capture a mating pair for the first time.

241209 d is for dingy skipper

Delayed Dingy

10 Friday May 2024

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They’re late this year compared to previous years, the Dingy skippers. I only saw my first on Wednesday 8 May whereas last year my first sighting was on 1 May; in 2022 it was 25 April; in 2021 23 April; in 2020 6 May and in 2019 my first Dingy was on 30 April. It just shows what a difference the climate makes: our cool wet spring weather seems to have had quite an impact on the emergence of many insects but this week has been warm and sunny, encouraging many mini-beasties to appear.

240510 dingy skipper

The first skipper

04 Thursday May 2023

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I tend to avoid the local country park on bank holidays, as it can be difficult to find the peace and solitude I prefer during my walks but, luckily, on the May Day holiday, most people were sticking to the walks around the lakes, the children’s playground and those places where they could buy food and drinks. So, a circuitous walk around the various paddocks and through a sheltered woodland clearing turned up my first Small tortoiseshell butterfly of the year and this beauty, my first Dingy skipper. Bank holiday bonuses both!

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50 shades of brown

28 Thursday Apr 2022

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The latest butterfly species in my locale to flit up and say ‘Look at me’ is the Dingy skipper and, for all its supposedly dingy appearance, it’s a little cracker, a subtle blending of 50 shades of brown. And it seems to me that all the skipper species have attitude; they punch above their weight in terms of stroppiness, defending their territory with a tenacity that belies their diminutive size. Welcome back, little skippers!

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A Dingy surprise

24 Saturday Apr 2021

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Well, this was a surprise! My first Dingy skipper of 2021 flitted up from the ground as I walked a path at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park yesterday, settled briefly nearby, then floated off and promptly disappeared. Luckily, I managed to fire off a couple of quick shots, and I think these show how easily this little butterfly can ‘disappear’ in the landscape – it’s incredibly well camouflaged.

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In my five and a half years in Britain, this is the earliest I’ve seen a Dingy skipper by at least a week, and my average first sighting has been a little later still, around the tenth of May. I presume our recent warm dry weather has led to these butterflies emerging earlier than usual, though the lack of rain could be an issue for them as the ground is very dry and the usual flush of spring wildflower growth delayed.

220/366 Second brood

07 Friday Aug 2020

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In 2019, when I began keeping records of all my sightings and focused seriously on searching for and recording butterflies, I saw my first local Dingy skipper on 30 April and my last on 10 June. This year, I spotted my first on 6 May and what I thought was the last on 26 May, a relatively short season.

200807 dingy skipper 24july

Then, remarkably, on 24 July, I saw a pristine, obviously newly emerged Dingy skipper, and I’ve seen two more this week, one on 4 August and another the following day. These are second brood butterflies, the product of the breeding of the butterflies seen in May.

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In his brilliant book Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, Peter Eeles write that ‘Good summers may … result in a partial second brood in southern England that emerges in late July and August (a second brood is the norm in Southern Europe), and this may become a more frequent and widespread phenomenon in Britain and Ireland with a changing climate’. It seems, here in south Wales, that phenomenon is already happening.

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128/366 Dingy skippers

07 Thursday May 2020

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Not only did I see my first dragonflies of the year yesterday at Lavernock Nature Reserve but I also spotted my first Dingy skippers (Erynnis tages).

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At least four of these inconspicuous little butterflies were feeding on their favourite food plant, Common bird’s-foot trefoil, or basking on the compacted earth of the tracks through the reserve, as is their wont.

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Their preferences for bird’s-foot trefoil and patches of bare ground are why these butterflies are often found on chalk and limestone grasslands, on brownfield sites and in disused quarries, amongst sand dunes and along open pathways adjacent to woodland.

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Sun, shelter and good food – it’s not much to ask for. But, sadly, the Dingy skipper is one of many declining species of butterfly in Britain, probably due to the way land is managed and to the intensification of agriculture. So, I feel very privileged to be able to observe and enjoy these lovely little skippers so close to home.

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120/365 Butterflies like buses

30 Tuesday Apr 2019

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I love it when a plan comes together. I’ve been thinking for a couple of days that it must be getting close to the time that the Dingy skipper butterflies (Erynnis tages) start to appear so, as it was quite warm this morning, I specifically went to Cosmeston, to a sheltered spot where I’ve seen them in the past, to look for my first Dingy of the year. It took a bit of searching, standing and watching for movement, and I was starting to think I wouldn’t find any but then, just like the proverbial buses, two came along at once.

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A tip if you’re looking for these – if you see one, don’t take your eyes off it. They are so well camouflaged that they just disappear into the foliage and you can be a foot away and not see them.

190430 dingy skipper 2