Painted Lady
From my garden last week
Small White
From my garden this week
Purple Hairstreak
A first sighting and capture of a Purple Hairstreak in the Dewerstone Woods, Shaugh Prior. A path leads up through the tree canopy, so quite easy to find them sitting in the top of the Oaks. Not the best image as I couldn’t get close enough before it flew off but happy to get my first shots
Small Tortoiseshell
Another visitor to my Buddleia this week when it was a little warmer and drier!!
Small Copper
My last image for this year’s Big Butterfly Count, one of my favourites spotted briefly in my Devon garden this week,
Peacock
Another shot from the Buddleia in my garden
Common Blue (male)
The same individual as yesterday’s post
Common Blue (male)
From my local patch near the River Tavy, a male Common Blue, the only one I saw, nectaring on Birdsfoot Trefoil. Hoping that more appear if the weather warms up!!
Silver-washed Fritillary
Another from my local patch on the River Tavy, West Devon
Red Admiral on Buddleia
Another visitor to my Buddleia
Comma on Buddleia
A very obliging Comma nectaring on my Buddleia
Comma
A fresh looking specimen from my garden
Marbled White (Melanargia Galathea)
A first sighting for me on my local patch. Overjoyed to find them and even more so that they were very obliging sitting nicely to allow me to take lots of shots.
Marbled White (Melanargia Galathea)
An upperwing shot of the same Marbled White as yesterday’s upload.
Marbled White (Melanargia Galathea)
Another shot from my local patch, this Marbled White sat nice and still for me to get really close with my macro lens,
Marbled White
Back to the Marbled Whites from a couple of weekends ago, they are fast becoming my favourite Butterflies.
Silver-washed Fritillary
My first ever shot of a Silver-washed Fritillary spotted near the River Tavy and luckily it settled long enough to fire off a few quick shots. Magnificent Butterflies to watch in-flight!
Large Skipper
From the same Meadow as the Common Blue I posted recently, this Large Skipper sat nectaring with nice backlight highlighting his wings
Meadow Brown
Lots of these around this year, nice to get a shot with a clean background!!
Small Skipper
Another outing to my local patch in search of Marbled Whites revealed my first Small Skipper of 2015
Ringlet
From the same Meadow as the Common Blue, still looking for Marbled Whites!
Male Common Blue
Taken in fading light near the River Tavy this week
Green Hairstreak
Taken out on the Moors (High Down, Lydford) last week, a first for me!
High Brown Fritillary
The grand finale of my week of Butterfly hunting, the HIgh Brown Fritillary is one of the UKs most endangered species and Dartmoor is one of it’s strongholds. I only saw one at the site so hoping to get back for more (and better) shots of this beautiful insect!
Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
A third Butterfly for the week and this time a first for me, taken on Dartmoor, again in search of the very rare High Brown Fritillary
Meadow Brown
My second Butterfly from this week, taken out on the Moors whilst searching for High Brown Fritillaries!
Brimstone
A great week for Butterflies, starting off with this Brimstone in my garden
Painted Lady
Taken in my garden a couple of weeks ago, a migrant from continental Europe, reportedly lots of them to arrive from Spain this year!
Wood White
From my first visit to the Devon Wildlife Trust reserve at Meeth Quarry, this is a stronghold for the rare Wood White Butterfly
Pearl-bordered Fritillary
Taken at Lydford Old Railway reserve on the same day as the Heath Fritillary posted previously.
This was the only Pearl Bordered Fritillary we saw on the day, luckily it was sitting up nicely on a wild Rose bush.
Heath Fritillary (Explored 27 May 2015)
I spent a wonderful afternoon at the BC Devon reserve near Lydford in search of the very rare Heath Fritillary. Thankfully we found at least 30 specimens and as the sun was behind the clouds they were static and showing beautifully.
Many thanks to the BC Devon branch for organising the event and for keeping this extremely rare Butterfly from extinction in the UK.
Holly Blue
A first for me, this Holly Blue appeared in my garden and settled on my flowering Skimmia yesterday. A great start for the 2015 Butterfly season.
