The First Butterfly Photograph of the Year

 Without making an extensive trawl through this blog, I'm not sure what is my most common first butterfly photograph of the year, but I have a feeling that the last few years it has often been a comma. 

Not this year!

In 2026, the honour of being the first butterfly to fall to my eager mobile phone camera was a peacock, a peacock feeding off blackthorn blossom is the library gardens nature reserve. A peacock that was friendly enough to allow me to get a decent photograph. 

Oh, those glorious colours!

I have a horrible feeling that this is going to be a poor spring for butterflies thanks to the terrible wet weather, and indeed on the warm days I haven't seen the number of brimstones I'd expect. 

We are in another spot of cooler weather at the moment, but when it warms up again, perhaps we shall see. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.03.26 

Moar Butterflies

 About the only day the sun managed to show its big yellow face last week, two things that had changed in the world of butterflies locally were revealed.

1) A big migration of red admirals had arrived.

2) There was a mass emergence of second flight peacocks.

(There's also a third, I suppose - I'm wondering if some of the small skippers I'm seeing are actually essex skippers)

They are particularly fond of flowering teasel and clearly don't mind the prickles!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.07.23

On the Buddleia

 If you want a plant that attracts pollinators and requires very little maintenance indeed, then buddleia is the one. A lot of the time it will grow whether you want one or not, and can be cut back to stumps each year and still come back bigger and stronger in no time.

Its sweet smelling flowers are a magnet for insects, and if you come across one on your travels, be sure to look at the flower heads to see who is visiting. It could be anything. 

Our small one at work seems to have some butterfly or other on it every time I walked past it. On this occasion it was a beautiful peacock, in A1 condition, that I somehow managed to get decent photos of despite the breeze. 

A small tortoiseshell proved more problematic, and sadly these photos aren't as good. But, they'll do. They are colourful, at any rate!

There's even a first shot for the year of a common blue on pennyroyal as a bonus.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.08.21