It's well overdue for starting. This is the link to last years thread
Butterflies and Moths 2023
There haven't been a lot of butterflies around here this year so far. The earliest was a fresh Red Admiral on the 3rd of january
Since then I've seen a Speckled Wood & Peacock. There have been Brimstone's about but I haven't seen them. Plenty of time left in the year to go chasing butterflies.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Thanks PB. Interesting I will take a closer look at the meadow brown/gatekeeper. You learn something new every day.
Yep have seen a largely reduced number of common blue, small coppers, etc… still hoping they are just late.
Photo's taken at RSPB Sandy 18/07. In addition to these I saw the Brimstone posted previously.
Red Admiral:
Small Copper - Variant with Blue dots:
Speckled Wood:
Gatekeeper:
Green-veined White:
Small White:
Comma:
Essex Skipper:
Large Skipper - Male:
Small Skipper:
Hopefully I have ID them correctly ?
I'm happy with your Meadow Brown id - it's a female and it's not unusual for them to have a second small white spot - if it were bigger it would be an aberration known as" bioculata"
Your skippers are Small & Large
Cin J
My apologies to you Mr Kes... Thanks Cin, learning every day... or in this case unlearning
Great set of pics.
A moth that appeared in a large plant pot I was de-weeding yesterday. It might be a Lesser Yellow Underwing .... but then it might be anything ... . The colour when it flew off was rather like a Skipper.
Thanks William
I'd go Large Yellow - Lesser doesn't have the dark markings near to the tip, close to the edge on the leading tip - it 'might' be Lunar but without lifting the skirts to see the underwing clearly I'd always go down the more common route of Large
Thank you for your assistance Cin, much appreciated. I don't know what we would do without you ...