Brown Argus Female And Male Common Blue

Male Common Blue

Female Brown Argus

 

Green-veined White Butterfly

 

Brown Argus pair. The Brown, but Blue butterfly.

 

A mating pair of Brown Argus. Tiny little butterflies but a delight to have about the meadow. Both male and female have mainly brown upper wings with orange markings but have that slight blue dusting on the body making them blue butterflies. The underwings look very similar to the other blue butterflies that have mainly blue upper wings.

Orange tip and Comma

 

Orange Tip - rarely sits still for long!

Comma - much more accommodating and not so camera shy.

Butterflies and Beginnings

Beautiful spring day with lots of butterfly action. Today I saw Eight different species: Speckled Wood, Peacock, Tortoiseshell, Large White, A 'Blue', sadly I was not close enough to confirm which type. Brimstone, Orange tip and Painted Lady. We also had a number of Sedge flies by the pond; our pendulous sedge plants had sedge flies!

Sedge on a Sedge.

Speckled wood.

Large white

Snakeshead fritillary 

Red Campion

Pendulous Sedge 

Colts foot seed heads

Water crowfoot

Flowering Water crowfoot

Comma Butterfly

A lovely spring day yesterday, saw this overwintering Comma butterfly flitting about the copse of the East side of our little plot. It is resting on the emerging Cow Parsley. I also saw a Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterfly enjoying the Spring warmth. No sign yet of a Brimstone or Orangetip.

Get the Habit, habitat!

Hedgehog heaven!

Habitat stack 1

Habitat stack 2

Habitat stack 3

Habitat stack 4 by the pond

'Build it and they will come' 

Clint (Our East wood) was too overgrown and some diseased Ash trees needed to be removed. While I hate cutting down any tree (most trees), I thought I would put the wood to good use and make some wildlife friendly habitat log piles for insects, newts and hopefully provide some wood that will be useful for stag beetle larvae. We live in hope. I am taking the  build it and they will come approach to managing my 6 acres for wildlife. This stack is at the top of the pond and in a rough area of grass adjoining the wood.

 

Tortoiseshell & Red Admiral Butterfly

The meadow is still in full bloom and the butterflies and bees are taking full advantage. Red Admiral (bottom) feeding on cover and Tortoiseshell, feeding in a corn-cockle large white and small copper were all on the wing. 

 

Small Copper Butterfly on on Corn Marigold flower

 

First year of sowing cornfield annuals and pleased to see that they are supporting the butterflies which have been quite scarce thus far. Hope to see numbers improve over time  as I increase the diversity of flora and supporting habitat over the next few years.