The Small
Tortoiseshell was abundant here for the first 10 years,
but in 2004 & 2005
has become an occasional siting. The Large Tortoiseshell
we have never seen
anywhere. It is seen on flowering garden plants, but
our favourite site is flowering
bramble hedges in late summer.
This multiflash photograph is of one butterfly in free flight, timed to flash at about each half wingbeat.
The 'Common Blue'
Butterfly really is fairly common, but we seldom see them because
they prefer the plants that are found on chalky soils (exactly
what our heavy clay is not).
The colour variation is quite large, varying from almost brown as in this photo, to quite light blue.
The Orange Tip
Butterfly is an early spring visitor that has a
preference for flowers such as
wild garlic.
This is a male. The femal doesn't have the orange wing tips but does have the fantastic dappled white and green underwing.
Our experience is that they seem to fly almost continuously, and fly off immediately when approached while feeding. Thus we have more and better pictures of them in flight, using our infrared beam triggered equipment, than sitting quietly on a flower.
We first saw a Small
Copper butterfly in July 2005. This one
alighted on a buttercup flower you can see at the top.
The blobs
to the upper left and right are rabbit droppings.