After a rather dismal spring, it's such a pleasure to see butterflies in the garden, and several species at a time. Red Admirals made their presence known on the 16th of May, when four appeared together, and today there are at least six. Silver Ys have also arrived in significant numbers over the pa...

Warmer weather and some butterflies at last, if not in spectacular numbers. A morning visit to the old airfield site saw several Small Whites, much attached to dandelions. 80031DB7-B688-44F4-8D7B-58D7FC377DFB.jpeg I worked steadily along the old roadway as this has produced Walls in the past - there...

Lovely pictures of the Green Hairstreak - so far this year, all mine have been disappearing over hawthorn bushes. It's interesting that one can feel nostalgia for a place that has become one's home as well as for the place one grew up. I knew the word's etymology but looked it up anyway and was surp...

Many thanks, Wurzel. It seems you are spot on - I managed brief views of 3 yesterday morning at the site between 10.30 and 11.00, in spells of intermittent sunshine. I've found them easily enough on gorse and broom in Norfolk, but this Cambs site has extensive areas of scrubby hawthorn and they seem...

A photo of the Speckled Wood which would not upload earlier:

A sunny day at last but still plenty of annoying winds. I'm still struggling to find any number of butterflies at all. In the garden a Small Tortoiseshell was very welcome, and Orange-tips and Green-veined Whites appear whenever the sun shines. I visited a site where Green Hairstreak has recently ap...

Those are interesting thoughts about how altitude will affect the impact of unusual weather. I imagine that this will not apply in most of the UK! I'm in just about the flattest part of the country - my house is six feet above sea level. I can say that locally this has been a very poor spring for bu...

No need to comment much further on the season so far, at least not in my area. Some sunny spells this afternoon but just two butterflies appeared in the garden. One odd thing is that according to my fairly empty notebook, I've seen four times as many female Orange-tips as males, which must be, at th...

At last! Many thanks to Millerd and Bugboy for solving the mystery - this is surely the most likely explanation. I'm not aware of any site in Cambridgeshire which has the food plants to sustain even a small population. Releasing Marsh Fritillaries here would be a pointless exercise but the one I fou...

Thanks for the wine information - I drink both!

As for the photos, it's almost like you're on another planet.

It feels like a poor season here in Cambs. We've had only brief and infrequent spells of sunshine, during which a few butterflies appear, but the number of species is behind for the date. On the 13th of April, there was a longer spell of sunshine. I went to my local churchyard and managed six specie...

David - this is the strange story of my Marsh Fritillary, then. It was on the 26th of May, 2020, at 10.45 am. There was warm sunshine and, I recall, there had been a south-westerly airstream for a few days. I went out into the garden and saw a butterfly land on the lawn - not unusual but there was s...

Fine pictures of the Orange-tip.

Chris - thanks. I took five shots, the other four were rubbish, which is about par for my course! Wurzel - since moving in five years ago we've deliberately focused on acquiring plants that are good for butterflies and bees. And ours is often the only garden nearby that has any colour or nectar - w...

Things are going absolutely crazy with a second new species for the year in the garden within three days. Weak sunshine in a shelter corner tempted a Holly Blue to feed on the perennial wallflower for a few minutes:

Now the rain has stopped, we have gales and still very little sunshine. But this morning, in about a force six, the first Red Admiral of my season was blown through the garden. I like to think it might have been a migrant.

Wonderful photographs as ever. I think the Speckled Wood is particularly beautiful.

What types of wine are produced by those spectacular vineyards, if you don't mind me asking?

Katrina - this season so far I'm considering myself lucky to see any sort of butterfly! We get Orange-tips every spring, mostly wandering males, but the food plants are to be found locally. It is unusual for me to see a female so early, though.

That's a stunning image of a Peacock.

Thanks to Wurzel and David. I was surprised to see the Orange-tip - the season isn't very old but already it feels like an odd one here!