Lingering

23 Thursday Oct 2025

Tags

autumn insects, British butterflies, British dragonflies, Common Darter, Odonata, Red Admiral, Speckled wood

Looking out the window now, as Storm Benjamin drenches us with heavy rain, it seems hard to believe there was some bright sunshine this morning. I happened to be at Lavernock Nature Reserve at exactly the right time to feel the warmth of that sun and I wasn’t the only one to enjoy the feeling. Although I haven’t seen any butterflies or dragonflies for at least a week, and thought I’d probably seen my last for the year, but it turns out they’re still lingering unseen, and out they popped to bask in the sun’s heat:

A Red admiral

A Common darter

And a Speckled wood.

Happy Spring!

20 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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Brimstone, British butterflies, butterfly, Comma, female Brimstone, Red Admiral, Small tortoiseshell

With a high temperature of 18º Celsius, the warmest day of the year so far, and lashings of sunshine, butterflies appeared as if by magic during this morning’s five-mile walk. In total, I spotted 13 butterflies of four species today, and it was simply enchanting. What better way to celebrate the vernal equinox than with a profusion of butterflies!

Brimstones were the most abundant, with nine seen. This gorgeous creature was my first female Brimstone of the year.

There were two Commas. One stayed high in the trees but this beauty was more obliging.

This Red admiral was looking quite tatty after surviving the long cold winter.

I was delighted to see this Small tortoiseshell, as they were very scarce here last year. At first, it was feeding high in a willow but my patience paid off when it came gliding down to perch on a nearby Bramble bush.

First butterfly of 2025

18 Saturday Jan 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, winter

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Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, Red Admiral, winter butterfly

I might have dipped on seeing the Firecrests that have been residing in Cardiff’s Bute Park this winter and have frequently been seen in these Rhododendron bushes, but there can be no better consolation than seeing my first butterfly of 2025, this Red admiral, even if it was at some distance. Spring is coming!

Lucky last?

14 Thursday Nov 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects

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Tags

autumn butterflies, autumn colour, British butterflies, butterfly, Red Admiral

Is this the last butterfly I’ll see in 2024? Quite possibly, as the overnight temperatures have now started to fall to single digits. Still, Red admirals are very resilient and, though they should have migrated south by now, I’m seeing reports of the odd one, like this beauty I spotted in a local field on Tuesday, still flying when the sun occasionally appears.

241114 red admiral

First butterfly of 2024

23 Tuesday Jan 2024

Posted by sconzani in nature

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Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, first butterfly of the year, Red Admiral

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

Enjoying the scabious

17 Sunday Sep 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects, wildflowers

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British butterflies, butterflies on scabious, butterfly, Devil's-bit scabious, Painted Lady, Red Admiral

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)

Four-footed butterflies

25 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Tags

British butterflies, brush-footed butterflies, butterfly, four-footed butterflies, Nymphalidae, Red Admiral, vestigial forelegs

I learn something new every single day and this is something so blindingly obvious that I can’t believe it hasn’t occurred to me before now. I was reading the entry about the Nymphalidae family of butterflies in my copy of Peter Eeles’s Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies when I came across this

the forelegs in both sexes are vestigial and useless for walking, and this family is sometimes referred to as the four-footed butterflies. The brush-like appearance of the forelegs has also resulted in the other common name for this family – the brush-footed butterflies.

Of course, I’d noticed that many species of butterfly sit on four legs (the skippers, for example, as well as most of the browns and the fritillaries, and the Red admiral pictured below) but I hadn’t realised that their forelegs are essentially useless for locomotion. And, indeed, according to an entry I’ve just read on Ray Cannon’s Nature Notes website, in some species of butterfly those forelegs have, during their long evolution, been adapted to function as sensory organs. Butterflies continue to amaze me!

230725 four-footed butterflies

Red admiral egg

11 Thursday May 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly egg, Red Admiral, Red admiral egg

During Sunday’s wander around the boundaries of some local horse fields (minus the nosey horses, this time), the sun wasn’t shining or warm enough for any butterflies to be found on the thick hedges and scrubby edges. This lovely female Red admiral was the one exception, appearing suddenly from behind a large bramble patch.

230511 red admiral

How do I know it was a female? Well, instead of flying off to patrol the bushes, she floated above and around the abundant, fresh Stinging nettles, looking for the best places to lay her eggs. How do I know they were Stinging nettles? Well, despite wrapping my fingers in the layers of my scarf, I still got stung on a couple of fingers while getting my first ever sighting and photographs of one of her eggs, a magnificent little ribbed barrel that should produce a tiny caterpillar in a week or so.

230511 red admiral egg

My last butterfly

24 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British butterfly, butterfly, Red Admiral

Looking at the weather forecast for the next week, I think I can confidently say I’ve seen my final butterfly for 2022. It was on 6 December, a surprisingly warm day in the winter sunshine, when was this slightly battered-looking Red admiral emerged from its over-winter hiding place. I am SO looking forward to the return of the butterflies in 2023, and I’m planning to see a few more of the British species I’ve not yet seen, which will be exciting.

221224 red admiral

Movement, 1

27 Thursday Oct 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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blurry photo, butterfly, Red Admiral, sense of movement

Shots like this usually go straight into the recycle bin but something stopped me deleting this one. Yes, it’s blurry, the ivy is out of focus, but I really like the sense of movement as the butterfly, a Red admiral, began to fly to another flower. What do you think? Save or delete?

221026 movement red admiral