One of the joys of summer are butterflies. I don’t claim great knowledge here, just a love of them and what they bring.
In an effort to learn more about colour, with so much of my work being in black & white, I have looked to nature to improve my knowledge.
Birds, butterflies and ‘scapes (land & sea) have been, and continue to be, where I seek this. What better teacher than nature herself.
As sometimes happens, you go to photograph one thing and end up photographing something entirely different.
On this day, in the late summer of last year, I was on my way to photograph the Ospreys passing through the Harbour on their southerly migration.
However, the light on this wild Blackberry bush and it’s most charming of visitiors caught my eye. (Osprey post one day hopefully).
The two species of butterfly drinking from the fruit and sunning themselves are Red Admiral and Comma.
The Comma are resident, the Red Admiral migrate from the continent and N. Africa. Yes, butterflies migrate!
There was a hornet around too, but I avoided getting too close for obvious reasons.
Comma are named such for the little white mark on the underside of the wing (see the photo above). With wings closed they resemble a dead leaf, such excellent camouflage from predators.
Their amazing scalloped wing shape and vibrancy of colour make them a favourite. The rude health of this one, it’s rich colour (so rich it looks like a flame!) and dark underside, makes me think it is from the September brood.
They mainly live in the south of England but are expanding their range northwards (great). They are early on the wing from March to October and have two broods – September to October and March to May.
The Red Admiral is England’s most abundant butterfly and this year it’s numbers increased by a whopping 300+%. Some good nature news.
They love fruit (and apparently get drunk on the fermented ones) and, like the Comma, love Common Nettles as their caterpillar stage foodplant.
Another thing they have in common is they are increasing in abundance over longer term trends (Red Admiral 77% over 13 years, Comma 5%).
I use the second camera (5dii) for out and about in the wilds. Such a trusty friend.
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