Tag Archives: spring butterflies

Speckled woods on the wing

01 Tuesday Apr 2025

Posted by in insects, nature, spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Sunday was a brilliant day for butterflies, with my first three Speckled woods of the year, each in a different location, all basking on hedgerows and flitting out to defend their territories as I passed by.

With its rich chocolately brown background colour mixed with small circular dollops of creamy yellow, it’s almost like a living crème egg … or is my imagination just being overly affected by the bombarding of pre-Easter advertisements?

My brilliant guide book, Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, tells me that the Speckled wood was once called the Wood argus, the name Argus coming from the ‘many-eyed shepherd of Greek mythology’. That seems a very apt name for this beautiful creature.

My first Brimstone

01 Saturday Mar 2025

Posted by in insects

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

The sunshine is working its magic! Though our overnight temperatures are still dipping below zero (Celsius), the days are finally full of blue skies and sunshine, and that has encouraged more insects to awaken, including this handsome male Brimstone. As butterfly fanciers will know, these newly emerged males rarely stay still; they patrol their territory constantly, sprinkling their pheromones over the vegetation, always searching for the females that emerge a little later than them. As I watched this one though, I realised that, after every two or three circuits, he was resting in the same place, and I managed to fire off a few quick photographs before he flew off again on his relentless search for a mate.

Sunday’s gift

17 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in insects, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

I was trudging slowly along a muddy path, trying not to slip (it’s happened before), so I wasn’t paying attention when my first Orange-tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) of the year flitted up in front of me, disturbed from feeding on a flower of Herb Robert. Typically, it flew back along the way I had come, meaning I had to retrace my slippery steps while trying to keep an eye on where it landed once, twice, three times. By the time I got to the start of the path, the butterfly had disappeared and, though I lingered a while, it didn’t reappear.

240417 orange-tip

On my way home, I was more lucky and spotted my second Orange-tip of the year. I could easily have missed it, so well camouflaged was it amongst the lush new growth of Cow parsley plants, but the breeze had picked up and it was having to flap its wings just a little to hold on to its perch. The flash of its orange tips gave its location away.

My first Large white

12 Friday Apr 2024

Posted by in insects, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

I’d just got home from walking a circuit of Cardiff Bay when a local birder and butterflier sent me a message to say there were some nice butterflies to be seen in a nearby park so out I went again for a look-see. He was right! Though I didn’t see the Green-veined white he had spotted, I did see the beauty shown below, my first Large white butterfly (Pieris brassicae) for the year, and my first two Holly blues, though neither paused long enough for a photo.

240412 large white

A seven-butterfly day

25 Monday Mar 2024

Posted by in insects, spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

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)

The first of the whites

13 Thursday Apr 2023

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I think I was probably a little later to the Small white party than most locals this year, possibly because they have gardens and/or allotments, which the Small white butterfly (Pieris rapae) very much enjoys (though, I hasten to add that the Small white is not as destructive as many gardeners might think and it is actually the Large white, which lays its eggs in batches rather than singly, whose larvae can quickly strip those precious cabbage leaves to their veins).

230413 small white (1)

This particular Small white, one of my first three seen on 7 April, has the typical markings of a female hatching from her over-wintering pupa in the springtime, with very pale grey markings on her wing tips and a small pale grey dot on her upper wings. The butterflies that hatch in the summer will have much darker, almost black markings. These differences are known as seasonal dimorphism.

230413 small white (2)

First female

01 Friday Apr 2022

Posted by in insects, spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

This pale lime beauty was my sixteenth Brimstone of the year (I saw my first on 27 February) but she was the first female, and the first to stay still long enough for a few photos. Male Brimstones usually emerge first from their winter hibernation (as adults) and can be seen flying purposefully up and down hedgerows, footpath edges and woodland rides, searching for females, which emerge a little later than their male suitors.

220401 brimstone

A Dingy surprise

24 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by in insects, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

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.

210424 dingy skipper

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.