Most UK butterflies spend the winter as caterpillars or pupae but there are five species that overwinter in their adult form: brimstone, comma, peacock, small tortoiseshell and red admiral, all of them present in the reserve.
All these photographs were taken in the reserve.
Yesterday morning, Clive Knight, walking in the reserve, found and photographed this beautiful comma butterfly.
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iRecord Butterflies is a free app for your smartphone that will help you identify and record any butterfly that you see in your garden. Your sighting will be logged by Butterfly Conservation and added to their records.
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Yesterday’s sunshine brought out bright yellow brimstone butterflies, fluttering along the reserve’s hedges.
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At this time of year, if you find a butterfly fluttering on the inside of your window, it will probably be either a peacock (Aglais io) or a small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae). It will have come in during the autumn looking for a cool, dark and sheltered place to overwinter and the gap behind the wardrobe in your bedroom must have seemed just right.
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A clouded yellow (Colias croceus) was identified in the reserve this summer for the first time in eight years. It is a migrant species, an early summer visitor from North Africa or Southern Europe.
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The record breaking painted lady is not the only British butterfly that migrates over long distances.
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A pristine painted lady, fresh from the chrysalis, feeding on bramble flowers in the reserve yesterday.
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Have you joined the BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT yet?
Marbled white, peacock and common blue, all photographed in the reserve
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Ian Bushell conducted a butterfly transect in the reserve on Thursday. Butterfly transects are the way in which we measure changes in the population of the reserve’s butterflies from year to year.
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Every year we find nests of peacock (Aglais io) caterpillars among the reserve’s nettle beds. Those caterpillars will be pupating soon and we will begin to see the new adults this month.
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Rambling in the reserve
by Ian Bushell
A funny start to the day with weather totally uncertain if it wanted to rain or be bright. While it had been raining in town, in the reserve the paths and grass were quite dry.
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The peacock caterpillars will be growing fast at this time of year.
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A comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album), so-called for the small white comma-shaped mark on underside of its hind wing.
All images take in the reserve by Clive Knight
The distinctive marbled white (Melanargia galathea) is common and widespread in southern England. At this time of year it chooses unimproved meadow grassland, showing a preference for purple flowers such as wild marjoram, thistles, knapweeds and red clover. The caterpillars feed on grasses particularly red fescue.
All images taken in the reserve
[1] Mating marbled whites by Ian Bushell) [2] Marbled white male by Ian Bushell [3]Marbled white feeding on red clover by Cheryl Cronnie
Header Image by Cheryl Cronnie
Conservation Status
Butterfly Conservation priority: Low
European status: Not threatened
I have had a few early mornings in the reserve in an effort to photograph butterflies before they get too active. It has often been quite breezy, which has made it challenging to get some good images. But one morning I was fortunate to find this common blue that I was able to get reasonably close to, and during the periods when the wind briefly dropped, I was able to fire off a few shots.
Continue reading “Chasing butterflies”
A small skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) feeding on red clover, photographed in the reserve by Ian Bushell.
Conservation priority: low.
Distribution: common and widespread.
Population trend since 1970’s – down by 7%
A beautiful photograph of a speckled wood (Pararge aegeria) against a backdrop of buttercups, taken in the reserve by Cheryl Cronnie.
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The female small tortoiseshell butterfly lays her eggs on nettles. Every year there are small tortoiseshell caterpillars somewhere among the nettles next to the path as you walk up the hill through Simpson’s Field.
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While they were tidying up the edge of the big pond last week, the Friends found a drinker moth caterpillar (Euthrix potatoria), so called because it is believed to drink drops of dew on grass stems.
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It’s not often that the reserve’s first reported butterfly of the year is a comma. This pair, basking in the sunshine, were photographed by Clive Knight on Monday.
One of the delights of September is a pristine, newly hatched, late brood small copper butterfly. This one was was photographed last week in the reserve by Clive Knight.
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This late in the year, there are few butterflies about but there is always a speckled wood (Pararge aegeriais) somewhere. Here is one on hawthorn berries photographed in September 2019 by DKG.
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Ian Bushell conducted a Butterfly Transect in the reserve at the weekend.
The transect route in the park samples its habitat types and management units. Butterflies are recorded in a band five metres wide along the transect. Transect walks are undertaken between 10.45am and 3.45pm and only when weather conditions are suitable for butterfly activity.
Here are the results.
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The white-letter hairstreak, so named because the white lines on its underwing form a W, is the emblem of the Wiltshire Branch of Butterfly Conservation and is the focus of a project to return this butterfly to our countryside.
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 