What an effort!

11 Friday Apr 2025

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British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly eggs, butterfly eggs on nettle, Peacock, Peacock butterfly, Peacock butterfly eggs, Peacock butterfly laying eggs, Stinging nettle

As I write this, my fingers are still stinging. And none of my photos are sharp, partly because ‘Ouch!’ but also because I didn’t want to disturb the clutch so was trying to move the leaf as little as possible. But, when I watched their beautiful mother laying the first of these yesterday, I knew I had to go back today to see how many she’d produced.

And here she is, the gorgeous female Peacock butterfly, clinging on to a Stinging nettle leaf. You might just be able to see how her abdomen is curved up towards the underside of the leaf where she is depositing her eggs. My guide book tells me that a female Peacock ‘lays her eggs in batches of up to 400 eggs, a process that can take over two hours’. What an effort! I will, of course, be looking out for when the tiny caterpillars emerge, in approximately two weeks’ time.

Peacocks aplenty

04 Friday Apr 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly

I didn’t see my first Peacock butterfly (Aglais io) of the year until 30 March, which is much later than usual – these are butterflies that overwinter as adults so can emerge from hibernation on warm sunny days even in winter. Now, just six days later, my count is up to eight, as we – and the butterflies – bask in a spell of unseasonally dry and warm spring weather.

I’ve discovered that, when I first see a new butterfly species each year, I have a tendency, a predilection, a need even to photograph every single one I see, as if taking their image makes them real – or perhaps it’s just my attempt to capture the heartfelt joy I feel at seeing butterflies on the wing, and relive that feeling when I’m looking at my photographs at home. After a few days, and having seen several, I begin to relax and focus more on taking better images – at least, I think the photograph below, taken today, is better than the earlier ones above.

A seven-butterfly day

25 Monday Mar 2024

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly, spring butterflies

Various commitments last Friday meant I didn’t get out for my walk until the afternoon but, in retrospect, that was probably a good thing as the air had warmed and, in the gaps between the huge clouds rolling across the sky, the sun felt very spring-like.

240325 peacock (1)

The happy result was a seven-butterfly day, with four Commas, two Peacocks, and a single male Brimstone that was zipping around a local park at the speed of light, as they do when waiting for the first females to emerge. Fortunately, one of the Peacocks was more interested in feeding from the Three-cornered leeks, so I managed to get a few nice photos.

240325 peacock (2)

Second Peacock

17 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly

Finally a butterfly that settled long enough for a photo. This Peacock was my fifth butterfly, third species for 2022.

220316 peacock butterfly

Peacocks and Speckled woods

10 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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British butterflies, Peacock, Peacock butterfly, Speckled wood, spring butterflies

Butterfly species seven and eight for the year for me are the gorgeous Peacock (I saw five on one of the few days we actually had some warm sunshine) and that lover of the woodland edge, the Speckled wood (two now seen – more will surely follow, when the sun returns).

210410 peacock 210410 speckled wood

277/366 A heartening splash

03 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature

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Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly

I’ve been saving this photo, taken quite recently, on 22 September, for just such a day as this. We are currently under the thumb of Storm Alex, the Met Office having issued a yellow warning for heavy rain and wind gusts over 20mph until midday tomorrow. So, to me, this is the perfect day to post this gorgeous Peacock butterfly, a heartening splash of bold cheery colour.

201003 peacock

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!

160/366 Peacocks in the nettles

08 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly caterpillars, butterfly larvae, Peacock butterfly, Peacock butterfly larvae, Peacock caterpillars

’Tis the time of the larvae, in this case, the larvae of the Peacock butterfly (Aglais io).

200608 peacock caterpillars (1)

According to Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, a female Peacock lays her eggs in batches of about 400 in the centre of a patch of nettles growing in a sheltered position that enjoys full sun. After about two weeks, the Peacock larvae/caterpillars hatch and begin their journey to adulthood.

As they munch on the nettles, they grow, and as they grow, they need to moult their skins. They do this four times, each stage known as an instar, before they pupate. The process takes about 30 days in total, and each of the five instars looks a little different.

200608 peacock caterpillars (2)

During last Friday’s walk, I was lucky enough to find big colonies of larvae in two different places, and both groups had larvae of the third, fourth and fifth instars, all feeding together. In the photo above, the brownish caterpillars are third instar, the darker caterpillars with spines and spots are fourth instar, and the large caterpillar on the right of the image is fifth instar.

200608 peacock caterpillars (5)

Not surprisingly, I got a few nettle stings getting these photos but it was worth it. As some of the largest caterpillars looked very close to pupation, I’ll revisit one of these sites this week to see if I can locate any pupas.

81/366 Number 3!

21 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

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Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly

Yesterday’s walk around Cardiff Bay didn’t only bring nice birds, it also produced my second butterfly species for the year, a Small tortoiseshell. Unfortunately, the wind blew it away so quickly, twice, that I didn’t manage a photo. But I did get a couple of shots of today’s third species, this lovely Peacock. And I also saw number four, my first Brimstone, a male that was so intent on flying back and forth along the footpath trying to find a female that I only got a blurry shot of it. In these troubled times, it makes my heart sing to see the butterflies emerging again.

200321 Peacock

135/365 Green hairstreak et al

15 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, Green hairstreak, Kent butterflies, Peacock butterfly, Small copper, Wall brown, Wall butterfly

I was hoping to see several different butterfly species during our days in Kent but the weather was mostly against us – we had, at various times, gale-force winds, squally rain showers, and batterings of hail, and it was generally quite cool. I was quite hopeful, though, when we arrived at Cliffe Pools on our last day, as the sun came out to play and the paths were mostly enclosed by sheltering trees and low scrub. It was by sheer chance, though, that I managed to spot my first ever Green hairstreaks – two butterflies were swirling around each other, disputing territory, and I immediately realised they were something different.

190515 green hairstreak (1)

Luckily, I kept an eye on them, as their camouflage is so good that they’re incredibly difficult to spot once they’ve landed on a bush.

190515 green hairstreak (3)

Plus, they often do this thing where they angle their wings to one side, presumably to make themselves look even more like a leaf.

190515 green hairstreak (2)

I also saw my first Wall brown butterfly for the year at Cliffe Pools – this was the species I’d seen reports of and was particularly looking for there.

190515 wall brown

At the RSPB nature reserve at Dungeness I also saw my first Small copper for 2019.

190515 small copper

And during the rest of our trip we also saw Peacock, Brimstone, Holly blue, and some of the White species – not a lot really but, though I didn’t get the quantity I expected, we certainly saw quality butterflies.