A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about dragonflies and damselflies. They are a wonderful group of flying insects to sate a frustrated bird watchers appetite during the quiet months of summer.
There are of course another set of airborne beauties to turn your binoculars on at this time of year, and they are the butterflies.
There are approximately fifty five species of butterfly in the UK, a lot of them are specialised to certain habitats and areas of the country. Fortunately there are enough to keep most nature watchers happy at your local reserve, patch or even your own back garden.
The first one most people identify is the Small Tortoiseshell, it is common and widespread throughout the UK. It was once known as the “Devil’s Butterfly” and the Welsh calling it the “Nettle Tortoiseshell”. Its success is down to its ability to have two broods a year, we are right in the middle of the second breeding cycle right now. I remember as kid collecting the distinct black and yellow caterpillars from the local abandoned quarry and keeping them in a fish tank and feeding them plenty of foliage, and waiting for the magical moment when you went in the shed and find them turning into chrysalis. I will never get my head around metamorphosis; it seems too bizarre to actually happen naturally.
During a walk around the pastures of Newport Wetlands I was surprised to see how many Ringlet Butterflies there were. They had clearly taken advantage of a rare few days of dry weather to emerge. This “Brown Eyed Butterfly” can be mistaken for another commonly seen nymphalidae at this time of year, the Meadow Brown. The Meadow Brown has a single spot on top of each wing. The male is the same dark brown in colour as the Ringlet, but the later having six distinct eye spots. Ringlets actually enjoy damp conditions, and will even fly in light rain, when just about all other species of butterfly will remain “grounded”. They are probably the only species in the UK that currently looks back at Summer of ’76 with disdain, as that long hot season led to a population crash! Meadow Brown’s hold the distinction of being Britain’s most common butterfly, and both species are regular visitors to my garden.
At the more spectacular end of the genus there is the Peacock Butterfly. This brilliantly coloured butterfly is a common visitor to buddleia flowers up and down the country. Its large eye spots on the forewings and hindwings are for scaring away predators, but I bet you didn’t know the cunning trick they pull to scare off small birds. Take a look at the picture I took of a Peacock Butterfly at Llanelli Wetlands WWT reserve. Now look at the same picture turned upside down. With a little imagination you can see an owls face, said to resemble a Little Owl or a Scops Owl. Imagine you are a Blue Tit looking for an easy meal, and you stumble across this tasty morsel, if the shock of it suddenly looking like a predator isn’t enough, the flicking of the two wings together produces a sudden hiss that will deter you enough to find something easier to tackle!
I hope you enjoyed this little summary of some of the most common butterflies you can see at this time of year. It is well worth investing in a field guide of these wonderfully colourful and varied creatures. There are plenty of excellent publications out there which would make worthy additions to your bookshelf!
© All Images Anthony Walton
Agrree and they make a wonderful subject to photograph when you get close enough!
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