The Gatekeeper and the Painted lady

04 Friday Jul 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, Essex skipper, Gatekeeper, Painted Lady, Silver-washed fritillary, White-letter hairstreak

During the three days from to 25 to 28 June I saw six new species of butterfly: Gatekeeper, White-letter hairstreak, Essex skipper, White admiral, Silver-washed fritillary and Painted lady. Seeing so many in such a short time was an amazing experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent watching each and every one of them.

Disappointingly, the only ones I can show you reasonable images of are the Gatekeeper (above) and the Painted lady (below).

The other species were either flitting around high in the tree tops (White-letter hairstreak), paused for the briefest of moments on some flowers before disappearing in to the farm field behind (Essex skipper), weren’t stopping for a moment in their endless quest for a female (a Silver-washed fritillary exits stage left), or weren’t stopping at all ever (not even a blurry photo of the two White admirals I saw).

Brightening up the hedgerows

17 Wednesday Jul 2024

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British butterflies, butterfly, Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus

Brightening up the hedgerows with the vivid orange of their upper wings, Gatekeepers (Pyronia tithonus) are a summer delight for nature-lovers.

240717 gatekeeper (1)

Over the centuries, Gatekeepers have enjoyed a range of common names, most attempts to provide a definite description of their appearance: the ‘Lesser double-eyed butterfly’ (James Petiver, Musei Petiveriani, 1695); the ‘Large heath’ (Adrian Haworth, Lepidoptera Britannica, 1803); the ‘Small meadow brown’ (George Samouelle, The Entomologist’s Useful Compendium, 1819); and ‘Hedge brown’, a name used by many since the 1800s. The name ‘Gatekeeper’ was bestowed on this beautiful butterfly by Moses Harris in his publication The Aurelian in 1766. (Naming details come from Peter Eeles’s Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, 2019.)

240717 gatekeeper (2)

A festival of orange and brown

08 Tuesday Aug 2023

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British butterflies, butterfly, Comma, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown

Just a little celebration of some of the beautiful butterflies I’m enjoying seeing during my daily meanders. Though some butterfly species are suffering from this year’s weird weather, these three species seem to be doing very well.

230808 1 comma and gatekeeper

A Gatekeeper in front, a Comma behind

230808 2 gatekeeper pair

A pair of Gatekeepers, the female on the left. The male butterfly has prominent sex brands (brown streaks) on its upper wings.

230808 3 gatekeeper meadow brown

A Gatekeeper below, a Meadow brown above

230808 4 meadow brown

A pair of Meadow browns, creating more Meadow browns. The female is on the left.

The day of the Gatekeepers

22 Friday Jul 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British butterflies, butterflying, Gatekeeper

The gorgeous Gatekeeper may well be the last butterfly species to be added to my local list this year, unless I get particularly lucky and manage to spot something unusual. But what a fabulous finale!

220722 gatekeepers

An aberrant Gatekeeper

31 Saturday Jul 2021

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aberrant butterfly, aberrant Gatekeeper, British butterflies, Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus var. subalbida

210731 gatekeeper (1)

This striking little Gatekeeper caught my eye during a recent walk. Instead of the vibrant orange hue usually seen in their wings (normal male colouring shown below), this little fellow’s colouring was a pale cream. Looking at the known variations for these butterflies on the UK Butterflies website, this appears to be the aberration subalbida.

210731 gatekeeper (2)

225/366 Battered & bird-pecked

12 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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battered butterflies, bird-pecked butterflies, British butterflies, Brown argus, Comma, Essex skipper, Gatekeeper, Painted Lady, Peacock, Ringlet, Small copper

Though second-brood butterflies are still looking pristine, many of the others are now well past their best, as life is tough for such fragile creatures. Some butterflies are so battered that I’m amazed they’re able to fly at all, yet this Gatekeeper and Ringlet were still moving from plant to plant.

Birds looking for an easy snack often attack butterflies and it’s easy to see the tell-tale signs of bird pecks on butterflies’ wings, like those on these: a Ringlet, Comma, Small copper and Peacock, and another Gatekeeper.

200812 birdpecked ringlet

200812 birdpecked gatekeeper

Is it the blazing sun that has caused this Essex skipper’s orange to fade so dramatically or has it lost most of its wing scales?

200812 faded essex skipper

I’m 99% sure this is the same Brown argus, seen first on 1 August and again on 10 August. It already had some bird pecks when I first saw it but, nine days later, it was looking rather faded and more than a little ragged around the edges.

This Painted lady is looking battered, bird-pecked, faded and jaded, perhaps the affects of a long migration journey, or simply a tough life well survived.

200812 jaded painted lady

205/366 Sightings at Slade Wood

23 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects, nature

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British birds, British butterflies, Brown argus, Gatekeeper, juvenile Spotted flycatcher, mating Gatekeepers, Minnetts Field, Peacock butterfly, Siskin, Slade Wood, Spotted flycatcher

On Wednesday I ventured on to public transport for the first time in four months – suitably masked, of course – for a visit to Slade Wood, near Rogiet. This was a site where I’d seen Silver-washed fritillaries and White admiral butterflies last summer so I was hoping for more of those but, unfortunately, huge areas of the woodland have been felled over the winter months, which has destroyed a lot of the butterflies’ habitat.

200723 1 peacock 200723 2 gatekeepers

I did still see a lot of butterflies on the Buddleja bushes – in fact, probably more Peacocks than I’ve seen in one day before, and I got some pics of a pair of Gatekeepers mating – but only spotted one Silver-washed fritillary (and didn’t manage a photo) and no White admirals. There was also a butterfly consolation prize in the form of a Brown argus, a butterfly that’s not common locally, which was in Minnett’s Field, a nearby meadow managed by Gwent Wildlife Trust.

200723 3 brown argus

Though the butterflies were a little disappointing, the birds were a huge bonus as I managed to find a family of Spotted flycatchers, with two adults and a couple of juveniles (below left), which I’d not seen before.

And the flycatchers were joined at their watering hole, a couple of muddy puddles, by two beautiful bright Siskin.

200723 6 siskin and spot fly 200723 7 siskin

I may not have seen what I was expecting and I was saddened to see how many trees had been felled but I still had a wonderful day out. The sense of freedom was exhilarating, and Nature certainly didn’t disappoint!

189/366 Keepers of the gate

07 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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British butterflies, butterfly, Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus

It’s a week since I spotted my first Gatekeepers of the year and, in the past seven days, I’ve seen them in several of my local walking places, though so far only males .

200707 gatekeeper (1)

They grab the wandering eye, as their bright orange pops from the vibrant green of the hedgerows and woodland rides, and in the long grass of fence lines and the gates that divide them.

200707 gatekeeper (2)

You can read more about these gorgeous butterflies in my previous blogs The Gatekeeper, July 2018, and Sexing Gatekeepers, July 2019.

200707 gatekeeper (3)

219/365 High on Hemp agrimony

07 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Dingy footman, Gatekeeper, Hemp agrimony, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Ringlet, Six-spot burnet, Speckled wood, Willow beauty moth

I’ve been spending a lot of time over the past couple of weeks staring at Hemp agrimony flowers. I’ve not yet found what I’ve been searching for – you’ll be the first to know when/if I do – but, in the meantime, here are just a few of the lovely creatures I’ve spotted nectaring on these pretty flowers: a Dingy footman moth, a Six-spot burnet moth and a Gatekeeper, a Painted lady, a Red admiral, a Ringlet, a Speckled wood and what might be a Willow beauty moth, but the jury’s still out on that one.

190807 dingy footman 190807 gatekeeper 6-spot burnet 190807 painted lady 190807 red admiral 190807 ringlet 190807 speckled wood 190807 willow beauty maybe

207/365 Butterflying at Lower Woods

26 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

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Brimstone, British butterflies, butterflying, Gatekeeper, Gloucestershire woodland, Lower Woods Nature Reserve, Purple hairstreak, Silver-washed fritillary, Small copper, woodland trenches

On the hottest July day on record, yesterday, three mad gents and a Kiwi woman went butterflying in the noon day sun!

190726 Lower Woods (1)

Our destination was the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Lower Woods Nature Reserve, which, according to their website, is ‘one of the largest ancient woodlands in the south-west of England’. I can believe it!

190726 Lower Woods (2)

We walked most of the Horton Great Trench, one of the long grassy roads that have been in existence since Medieval times, as well as detouring in through the woods on one of the many tracks, and it was beautiful – extremely hot, but beautiful! Towering old trees edged the ancient trackway, with clearings widening out to wildflower meadows in many places along the way.

190726 silver-washed frit

The trench was perfect for butterflies. I have never seen so many Silver-washed fritillaries before, and there was also an abundance of Peacocks, flashing their brilliant colours on the bramble flowers. We spotted several Purple hairstreaks up high in the ancient oaks and then had the delight of watching one come down to the grass to drink from the overnight dew – fabulous!

190726 purple hairstreak 190726 small copper

Our list for the site came to 17 species: Silver-washed fritillary, Purple hairstreak, Peacock, Red admiral, Comma, Large and Small and Marbled whites, Brimstone, Small skipper, Common blue and Brown argus, Speckled wood, Meadow brown, Ringlet and Gatekeeper, and two gorgeous Small coppers.

190726 gatekeeper 190726 brimstone

We didn’t actually find our target species, the White admiral, at Lower Woods but a detour to Slade Wood on the way home produced one individual, bringing our top-spotter car-driver his 50th butterfly species of the year. Congratulations, Gareth!