Small Skippers Close the Butterfly Gap

 We have now emerged from the June butterfly gap, with the cooler weather of most of the month so far replaced with this savagely hot weather of the last few days. 

For those weeks, there was barely a butterfly to be seen, but now we are seeing the high summer species like meadow brown and ringlet in the air, and in the library gardens, a very fresh and confiding small skipper feeding off a cultivated campion. 

I spend a lot of time in the library gardens, with a tea or a cold drink, and love to take in the vivid colours while photographing the myriad of insect species that populate it. I sit and read, or sketch, and just take it all in. 

When you have Tourette's, you have to enoy the peaceful and colourful moments. 

Si 

All text and images copyright 25.06.26 

Small Skippers are Fluttering

 Last week on our campus, the hot weather brought the emergence of the well named small skipper butterflies. 

These dinky orange butterflies with the wing arrangement that always makes them look like the flights of a dart were far too busy flying about to settle anywhere. 

Today, however, they were happy to feed off ragwort and pose for photographs. However, this was complicated by the fact there was a very strong wind blowing across the badlands, and so you had to find one sitting on a shorter plant that wasn't being blown almost flat to the ground. 

So I present to you this fine specimen. 

Also captured today was a new insect for me, albeit a common one. A red spotted parasite fly, so named for its sinister habit of paratising moth larvae. Of course, this was sitting on the stinky curry plant that seems to attract the underclass of the insect world!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.06.25

Terrible Weather but Still things to See

 Well, this summer is an absolute stunner, isn't it? The last few days we've had occasional sightings of a hazy looking round yellow thing up in the sky, only for a wave of heavy cloud to immediately cover it over and deposit a large amount of water on the saturated ground. 

I've been cycling to work most days in a very fetching bright yellow disposable poncho, which I'm finding to be indisposable. Despite the odd tear it now sports. 

Still, when there isn't rain, there have been some very pretty creatures on the wing, most notably the patchwork leaf cutter fee that visited my just about open gazanias I bought from the market. 

Down in the library gardens I've come across yellow legged mining bees and large numbers of vestal cuckoo bumblebees, while at work, there are small skipper butterflies on the thistles and endless ragwort that covers the badlands next to the cycle path. 

Even saw a muntjac deer down there the other day. 

In short, there are still things to see, but I would imagine they are as fed up as we all are.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.07.24

The Golden Small Skipper

 Areas of our verges at work look like alpine meadows at the moment. Who'd have though such run of the mill plants as self heal, hawkbit and white clover could create such an arresting sight. 

The bees and bumbles are, of course, loving it. 

Various species of thistle are also in flower, and it was upon one of those that I came across my first close view of a small skipper this summer. It was cool this morning, and grey as my cooking, hence the little butterfly, a little golden paper dart, was still enough to allow me to get some good photographs. 

After a bad start to the year for flutterers, it is good to see a fair few of them around now. Fairy tale burnet moths are also up now, but keeping their distance.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.07.24

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

The Butterflies of High Summer

 As you may have noticed, or not, during this rather dull spell of weather we've been having, it is now high summer, and the butterflies we are now seeing at work are those typical of that season. 

No longer are the orange tips and brimstones on the wing, and the early season butterflies like commas and holly blues are in between flights at the moment. Instead we have the grassland butterflies like the meadow brown and the ringlet, just recently joined now by the gatekeeper and other species. 

Our workplace meadow is now over for the year; instead our camous is now bedecked in thistles, ragwort and flowering teasel. These are rather less attractive plants to look at, but still, they have an important function to play as food plants for pollinators. 

So let me present to you some photographs of these species, with the bonus of a beautiful brown argus. The good thing about the cooler weather, is that the butterflies are rather slower moving!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.07.23

Skippers Everywhere!

 At the moment in the long and gloriously unkempt un-mowed grass verges at work, it is almost impossible to look at any patch of ragwort or creeping thistle without seeing a little splash of golden brown sitting on top, nectaring happily with a ridiculously long tongue.

These are the campus small skippers, which even on dull and slightly damp days, seem to be everywhere.

Their strange wings are unlike most other butterflies, looking almost like little orange dart flights, or for the more science fiction minded Star Wars X-Wing fighters. They are also a lot more confiding than the other high summer grass land species, allowing close up photography unlike the skittish meadow browns which seem frightened of their own shadow let alone mine. 

As ever, just spending five minutes watching out for life in the long grass is wonderfully distracting, a mental palate cleanser from the of the odder things the autistic or tourettic mind can get fixated on. 

The campus curry plant is very much coming into its stinky own, and seven spot ladybirds are absolutely loving it. Rather more than I do...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 27.03.23

Mimics and Skippers

 I am conscious of the fact I'm not posting the amount of nature content I'd like at the moment - being a cricket captain takes up a lot of time as trying to get a team of eleven together is the proverbial herding cats kind of experience. 

But believe me, I am still doing my bit. I've been promoting 30 Days Wild Wild, The Wildlife Trusts' annual campaign to get people going outside and taking some interest in what is around them. I always highlight the mental health benefits of it, because when I patrol our un-mowed verges for five minutes I am fully focussed on observing what is there, and all stresses to do with work, life, and the daily challenges caused by Tourettes and Autism disappear. 

There is, of course, the chance that you might find something new, although I didn't think I had when I saw what appeared to be perhaps a tree bumblebee settling to feed on bramble flowers. However, closer inspection revealed that the eyes were far too large to be that of a bee, and that this was actually a fly. 

A bee mimic hoverfly in fact! 

This is the first time I've seen such an insect, although I'm sure they are pretty much common as mud. Not as spectacular as the hornet mimic hoverfly, it is still a striking creature, 

Also making their first appearances of the young summer recently, are the warm weather grassland butterflies the meadow brown and ringlet, and also our numerous workplace small skippers. 

They are easier to photograph than the other species, although you have to be very careful in approaching them, and I managed to find an obliging specimen nectaring from creeping thistle.

I hope you enjoy the content!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.06.23