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Tag Archives: Peacock

Second Peacock

17 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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

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Peacocks and Speckled woods

10 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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 peacock210410 speckled wood

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277/366 A heartening splash

03 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature

≈ 8 Comments

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

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225/366 Battered & bird-pecked

12 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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.

200812 battered gatekeeper
200812 battered ringlet

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 1 comma
200812 birdpecked 2 small copper
200812 birdpecked 3 peacock

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.

200812 faded brown argus 0108
200812 faded brown argus 1008

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

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81/366 Number 3!

21 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

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

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197/365 Butterflying at Slade Wood

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, walks

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, British butterflies, butterfly, butterflying, Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, Silver-washed fritillary, Slade Wood, Small tortoiseshell, White admiral

Yesterday, with my friend Sharon, I went to Slade Wood, in the neighbouring county of Gwent, for a walk and some butterflying.

190716 Slade Wood

The woodland was lovely and a haven from the hot sun but, for us, the best butterflying was to be had just wandering along the country lane leading to the woodland. With high hedges, abundant wildflowers and occasional blooming Buddleia bushes, backed by the tall woodland trees, it was heaven for butterflies. These are a few of the 12 species we saw …

190716 white admiral

My first White admirals of the year, the first I’ve seen in Wales; they seem to float over the vegetation.

190716 silver-washed fritillary

Those giant orange-and-brown speedsters, the Silver-washed fritillaries.

190716 red admiral

Red admiral extracting minerals from poo … mmmmm, delicious!

190716 comma

Comma, incredibly well camouflaged amongst the grasses and leaf litter, also heading for a slurp at the poo.

190716 peacock

Peacock, hiding its glorious bold colours away behind those closed wings.

190716 small tortoiseshell

Small tortoiseshell, a pretty little butterfly that I don’t see very often, so a delight to spot one of these.

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Birding at Peterston & Pendoylan Moors

12 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by sconzani in animals, birds, insects, nature, walks

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, British butterflies, butterflies, Cinnabar caterpillars, Comma, Cows, Glamorgan Bird Club, Green-veined white, Meadow Brown, Peacock, Red fox, Red kite, River Ely, Sand martin, Small tortoiseshell, Stock dove

Yesterday I enjoyed another wonderful, if rather hot day’s birding with my friends from the Glamorgan Bird Club, this time wandering a trail alongside the River Ely near Peterston-super-Ely and Pendoylan.

180711 2 red kites

On the way there, my friend John and I had incredibly close views of three Red kites and more of these magnificent birds of prey were gliding overhead during our walk.

180711 1 stock dove

We saw Stock doves (one pictured above) sitting obligingly close to Woodpigeons so we could see the differences in the two species.

180711 2 red fox

A Red fox was spotted trotting along in a distant field, its lunch in its mouth.

180711 4 meeting the locals

A large herd of large cows moved reluctantly away from the river so we could pass by. You’d have to be crazy to mess with this lady, who was keeping a steady eye on us in case we ventured too close to her calves.

180711 5 participants

The fifteen participants … well, fourteen really, as I was taking the photo.

180711 6 river ely

The meandering River Ely was running low due to the recent drought conditions here in south Wales.

180711 b cinnabar caterpillars
180711 b comma
180711 b green-veined white
180711 b meadow brown
180711 b peacock
180711 b small tortoiseshell

As well as birds, we also saw lots of butterflies, including these: Cinnabar caterpillars, Comma, Green-veined white, Meadow brown, Peacock, and more Small tortoiseshell than I’ve ever seen in one day before.

180711 7 sandmartins

The highlight of the day for me was watching these Sand martins hawking for food over the fields and then returning to their burrows in the river bank to feed their hungry young. Magic!

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Cavorting at Cossie

03 Thursday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterflies, Comma, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Orange-tip butterfly, Peacock, Speckled wood

180503 Brimstone & Comma

I think it’s fair to say it’s not been much of a Spring so far, weather wise at least. It’s often been cool, frequently wet, and the sun has been elusive. I’m hoping Monday, the last day of April, was a hint of days to come – though there was a cool wind, the skies were mostly blue and it was warm in sheltered spots. Those conditions at Cosmeston persuaded the butterflies to come out to play, and I saw the highest numbers so far this year: 7 Brimstones, 2 Orange-tips, 2 Speckled woods, 2 Commas and 4 Peacocks. And it was such fun to be cavorting like a crazy woman again, flitting across fields and dancing along hedgerows to try to get photographs.

180503 Brimstone (2)180503 Comma180503 Orange-tip180503 Peacock180503 Speckled wood

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Wild word: aposematism

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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Tags

#WildWords, aposematism, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly, warning coloration, warning patterns, wild words

Aposematism: noun; from the Greek ἀπό apo meaning ‘away’ and σῆμα sema meaning ‘sign’; a term developed in the 19th century, reputedly by Edward Bagnall Poulton (a British evolutionary biologist), for the bright colorations or conspicuous markings that creatures use to warn or repel predators. Typical examples are things like bright yellow frogs or orange-and-black-striped caterpillars, whose colours serve as a warning to potential predators that they taste bad or might even be poisonous, and, butterflies, like the Peacock shown here, with big bold eye-type markings that make them look larger than they really are.

180425 Aposematism Peacock butterfly

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Getting the flutters

16 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Bee-fly, British butterflies, butterflies, Comma, Comma butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly, Speckled wood, Spring has sprung, springtime

Spring came to south Wales on Saturday at approximately 3.30pm and lasted about 4 hours. (It’s supposed to return again next week and stay a few days but, in the constantly changing contemporary climate, it pays not to count your chickens – or, maybe that should be, your rays of sunshine!) Amazingly, as soon as the sun appeared, so too did the butterflies. It was like a door had been opened – where had they been hiding, I wonder? In the space of about 30 minutes, I saw Peacocks and Commas, several never-settling Brimstones, a distant large-or-small White, and my first Speckled wood of the year. Oh, and a couple of Bee-flies – not butterflies, obviously, but the cutest wee flying things you ever did see so I’ve included one here. It was delightful!

180416 1 Peacock180416 2 Comma180416 3 Peacock180416 4 Comma180416 5 Speckled wood180416 6 Bee fly

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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