Moths and Butterflies

I have not posted for a while because I have been away - exploring the Outer Hebrides. While we were away, the weather was apparently not good here, cool with plenty of rain. The grass is now green again after the drought in the spring.

The rain has brought on the fungi - lots of inkcaps and also 2 large fairy rings in the lawn (Fairy Ring Champignons).

Since our return, the weather has changed to very hot. This has brought out hundreds of moths and butterflies.

The moth above, a Buff-Tip, is one that I have never seen before. This is possibly because it is so well camouflaged. It looks just like a piece of twig. I thought it was a twig. Only when I touched it and it moved slightly, was I sure that it actually was a moth. Some moths like to play dead and don't fly away when you touch them. This was one of them. What an amazing creature!



The Large Emerald Moth is a real beauty. I think moths get a bad press. People don't tend to like them, fluttering around the lights at night, but many moths are every bit as pretty as butterflies. This one included.



Finally, I had never seen a Skipper butterfly until a couple of years ago. This year there are lots of them. I am not sure what has attracted them to the garden. Although this one is called a Large Skipper, it is in fact quite small with a wingspan only in the region of 30mm. This one is a male, identified by the black scales on its wings.

Glorious Autumn Weather

I don't want to speak too soon, but after a mixed summer this autumn has started beautifully - bright blue skies with a few fluffy clouds and glorious golden sunrises.

The leaves started changing colour in August, but very few have fallen. If we don't get any high winds, I think this will be a very colourful autumn.


Today was sunny and warm and the creatures in the garden were making the most of it. Two buzzards were soaring over the house and butterflies (Comma and Speckled Wood) and dragonflies were enjoying the sunshine.

Hundreds of Butterflies

After the rain yesterday, the butterflies have emerged to make the most of the sunshine. There are hundreds of them - gatekeepers, ringlets, green-veined whites, commas and small heaths (I think). Today is fairly windy so they are keeping to the sheltered spots, where I also spotted a banded demoiselle and a large red damselfly.

This photo shows a male (one black spot) and female (two black spots) green-veined white.

Great year for butterflies

What a great year this has been for butterflies. Today was warm and sunny and the bramble bushes along the garden fence were alive with butterflies - dozens of them, mostly Gatekeepers (sometimes called Hedge Brown) and Ringlets.

This is the first time I have seen Ringlets in the garden, but I find them very difficult to identify without getting a photo. That is difficult in itself because they don't keep still for long.