Monday 30 August 2021

A Flutter of Butterflies

Painted Lady

It has not been a good season for butterflies here in our Suffolk garden, though we had a few Brown Argus earlier on and even a Green Hairstreak. However, Red Admirals seem to have flourished in recent days and even the white Buddleia has been awash with their colourful wings. 

We have been thrilled to see a few Painted Ladies, like the one in the picture above that landed on one of the old insect houses. This house has been taken over by ants; you can see their earthworks in the holes. Last summer this same insect house was the domain of Leafcutter bees, who were a joy to watch as they came in and out with their rolled-leaf parcels. 

 

Comma

Meadow Brown, numbers down on 2020

A rather travel-worn Red Admiral

Peacock, one of the few

Red Admiral, one of the many more numerous

Small White (we have had Large Whites, too)

 
Small Tortoiseshell, a slightly better 'garden season' for these

We also had a single male Brimstone a few days ago followed by a Speckled Wood, but they didn't stay around long enough for a photograph. 

 

Painted Lady, wings closed

 

7 comments:

Coastal Ripples said...

The painted ladies and red admirals have done well in our corner too. Overall a poor year though. The whites are only just appearing in any numbers. B x

eileeninmd said...

Beautiful butterflies and photos. The Peacock is my favorite.
Have a great day and happy week ahead!

Mike Perry said...

Such wondeful photos, must say I haven't seed many butterflies in our garden this year - unfortunately. All good wishes ~ Mike.

Caroline Gill said...

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments. After my leafcutter bee comment, you may be interested to hear that while I have not seen these bees this summer, we now have a bush with punched-out circles all over its leaves ... I'm keeping my eyes skimmed!

Ragged Robin said...

Wonderful photos. I still haven't seen a Painted Lady this year. Buddleias are good for attracting butterflies and bees :)

Crafty Green Poet said...

Lovely photos, Caroline! Speckled woods have had a good year up here in Edinburgh and I've had three days of wonderful butterfly watching in three different greenspaces around the city. I've not seen a single butterfly on buddleia this year though....

Lowcarb team member said...

I enjoyed seeing your lovely photographs.

All the best Jan