common_nature | Entries tagged with butterfly

Cicadas are hatching! I've seen a few hatch earlier, but this morning after the rain there are lots of them. The biggest concentration is around the forest garden and edges of the patio. :D These are red-eyed cicadas, technically periodical cicadas. Their carapaces are almost hard, their wings fully extended but still too soft to fly. It's a feast for everything that eats insects. Humans can eat them too. (I'm not planning to try that.) Usually what we get here are various types of the larger green cicadas, like the dog-day cicadas.

For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.

See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

blackcatofmisery

I love spring, because garden centers open, and that means pollinators. I saw a butterfly going about in a greenhouse and finally tracked it down—taking a picture every couple of seconds, so I looked like a creep, I'm sure—on a hanging planter. I believe it's an American lady (Vanessa virginiensis), judging by the two eyespots and bit of pink.

( Photos beneath the cut. )

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Jace Everett - Bad Thigns

yourlibrarian

A smattering of nature pics from past months, starting with catching this butterfly lingering long enough for a phone pic. ( Read more... )

turlough

Butterflies usually move around too much to get good photos of them but this male Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) was nice enough to keep sitting on this flower long enough for me to get several nice photos of him. You can even see his proboscis, both curled up and straightened out.

Click to enlarge pictures:

small golden-brown butterfly on pale-striped flower

( one more picture... )

Current Mood: productive

nanila

This is the first orange tip I've seen so far this year, in Norfolk, UK, in the out-laws' garden. How's the butterfly-spotting where you are?

nanila

The red admirals are enjoying the abundant crop of blackberries in Norfolk, UK, almost as much as the humans are.

turlough

I walked past a patch of Wild Marjoram (Oregano vulgare) today and as usual it was full of bees and butterflies. Butterflies are even worse than birds for keeping still but this time I managed to get a couple of quite nice photos.

One of this Peacock (Aglais io) (click to enlarge):

And one of this ( Painted Lady... )

Current Mood: peaceful

yourlibrarian

From a visit to a public garden a few years ago ( Read more... )

nanila

We came across these mating brown argus butterflies with their furry butts smooshed together on our daily walk across the fields in Norfolk, UK. They seemed quite peaceful until...

Mating brown argus butterflies - with interloper!

...someone came along and tried to make it a threesome! The advances were firmly rebuffed.

nanila

I'm currently in a new part of rural Worcestershire, UK, which happens to host a large population of marbled white butterflies. I've seen many a cabbage white, but these are new to me, and it's thrilling to see so many hovering above the grasslands.

This particular butterfly zoomed into the front porch this afternoon and straight into a spider web. I got to it before the spider did (sorry, spider) and carried it back outside. It sat on my finger for a while, which puzzled both of us, until I worked out that it still had its feet entangled in silk. I managed to disentangle it without causing any damage. It flew away, not very far, and spent some time cleaning its feet and legs with its proboscis before setting off back to the fields.

yourlibrarian

( Read more... )

nanila

I think this orange tip butterfly must have been fairly newly hatched. It spent ages drinking from the hyacinths.

nanila

I was thrilled to observe, and be able to capture, this mid-air dance between two speckled wood butterflies in Norfolk, UK. I'm pretty sure it was a mating ritual as it was a slow, graceful ascent, quite different in appearance to the rapidity of aggressive territorial displays.

nanila

Am visiting Norfolk (UK) this weekend, and the glorious weather has brought out the butterflies. We found this peacock on the lawn; given its somewhat tattered condition, it's probably a freshly emerged overwintering imago.

nanila

I'm hopeful that someone with better knowledge of butterfly behaviour can tell me what's going on here. I think these two are going through a mating ritual. The female (below in this photo) is sitting quite still on the grass with her wings flat and abdomen raised perpendicular to the ground. The male was repeatedly bombarding her from above. I was trying to photograph them with quite a high shutter speed but because his "attacks" tended to buffet her, I lost focus 95% of the time. This was the best I could do. They tumbled off over a hedgerow before I could come to any certain conclusions about what was going on. So, er, are they preparing to mate? Or is something else going on?

Current Mood: puzzled

nanila

Today I spotted a new (to me) butterfly in our garden! At first I thought it was another gatekeeper, of which we have many, but then I realised that the sides of its wings had multiple spots rather than the single eye that gatekeepers' wings have.

Small coppers are not uncommon, but I've never seen one here (rural Worcestershire) before. I was under the impression their territory was further south. It makes sense with the unusually warm weather that they'd be spreading north. This one was a particularly vibrant specimen. \o/

nanila

We've got a newcomer in our garden! I know that painted lady butterflies do occasionally visit the UK Midlands, but I don't believe I've ever had more than a fleeting glimpse of one. I presume the prolonged heat wave is helping them to expand their range, as this one seems to have staked a claim here. Along with two very combative commas, a peacock, and a lot of cabbage whites, gatekeepers, and small tortoiseshells.

Current Mood: excited

nanila

I was very excited this weekend to have gotten some of the best macro shots I've ever taken of a holly blue butterfly in my garden! They are tiny and infrequently settle at eye level so this was a treat.

redbird

I photographed this monarch Sunday afternoon in the Native Pollinators' Garden next to the Somerville Community Path. We saw several monarchs in that garden yesterday, when it was sunny; this afternoon was overcast after rain.

monarch butterfly perched on purple flower

I posted this last night, then removed it because I was hoping to shrink the image. I'm having trouble with the photo editing software on my various devices (I'm still getting used to Windows again, and Flickr seems to have removed the option of posting smaller versions of images stored there), so here it is behind a cut.

[Trying once more for a decent-sized photo]

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Common Nature

wonder and joy and mystery in everyday things

Entries tagged with butterfly

Photos: Cicadas

An American lady

Autumn Changes

large skipper

Orange tip butterfly

Red admiral butterfly

Butterflies among Wild Marjoram flowers

Mating Butterflies

Mating brown argus butterflies

Marbled white butterfly

Butterflies, flowers and guest

Orange tip butterfly

Speckled wood butterfly mating dance

Peacock on the lawn

Cabbage whites (mating?)

Small copper butterfly

Painted lady butterfly

Holly blue butterfly

butterfly perched on flower

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June 2025

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