Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
This year we have not seen many of the colourful English Summer butterflies. There have been one or two Red Admirals and Peacocks but no Painted Ladies. Mostly it’s been the less welcome — when you have a vegetable patch — Cabbage Whites and some yellow Brimstones plus lots of the smaller Meadow Browns and occasional Tortoise Shells. Today, however, a Comma came to settle on a rhododendron leaf. It’s a strange name for a butterfly, but its punctuation mark is only visible when it has its wings folded.
UPDATE:
How wrong I was with that first comment! The butterflies came in force in August and September. Dozens of Peacocks and a good number of Red Admirals landed on the buddleias in such numbers that every single bloom had at least one butterfly on it and some had three trying to share the irresistible nectar. Below are a Peacock and a Dragonfly that came to the garden in September.
Peacock
Female migrant hawker