Early Butterfies

Small Tortoiseshell Aglais urticae

I'm getting fed up with winter now and eagerly looking forward to Spring. The air smells different, the woods are full of birdsong, daffodils, crocuses and aconites are in bloom and surely it's only a matter of time before I see the first Brimstone.

To look forward you sometimes need to look back, so here are a few Butterfly photos taken over the last few years, although obviously not all in Spring. It is possible to see all these beauties in March if the weather is warm enough.

Brimstone Gonepterx rhamni

Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines

Comma Polygonia c-album

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta

Late Butterflies and Dragonflies

The butterfly and dragonfly season just seems to go and on. On Sunday morning with the weather unseasonably warm, and we decided to take a long walk in the Chilterns, the plan being to end up at one of our favourite pubs. It felt more like a spring day and I was not surprised to see a few Red Admirals, a couple of Peacocks and a Brimstone out enjoying the mellow sun. Red Admirals are immigrants from Southern Europe and North Africa but there is now evidence that they are successfully overwintering in Britain. I recently saw a photograph of a Red Admiral resting on a snowdrop, taken in January! I was much more surprised to see a male Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum out and about. The flight period for this familiar little dragonfly is from late June to late October, making this a very late individual. Only a few days ago I came across a Migrant Hawker patrolling a pond in a garden I was working in - another late dragonfly. 

A Red Admiral was out in the late afternoon sun today, probably my latest ever butterfly record and possibly not my last sighting of the year as there are few more mild days to come. It certainly makes the Winter seem shorter!

Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum - male

Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum - female

Red Admiral

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (5/7/2008)

This morning I found a beautiful Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta, basking lazily on a clump of flowering ivy in the mellow late Autumn sun. It has been a good year for these elegant butterflies and there are still plenty on the wing in Gardens and Orchards taking advantage of the mild October weather. Sadly, it looks as if the butterfly year is about to end with the weather forecast to turn cold, windy and wet next week. It will be a long wait until Spring when the first Brimstones are on the wing again!

 Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (5/7/2008)

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (19/7/2006)