After one of the coolest, driest springs on record, May so far seems to have done a pretty good impression of what a typical April should be like. Our weather station recorded a mere 5.8mm of rain for the whole of April but by the 2nd of May we’d virtually equaled that at 5.6mm and a storm on the third day took us to 20mm!
At last on 18th May we saw some butterfly friendly weather and I took a trip down to the Cut-off Channel at Stoke Ferry to enjoy the springtime Grizzled Skippers, Small Heath, Brimstone and Orange-tip butterflies to be seen there.
Aside from a zooming Peacock, Small Heath were the first butterflies to show. As usual they chose awkward perching spots close to the ground amongst the undergrowth and leaf litter. I always forget how very small they are; the Common Daisy, Bellis perennis and Redstem Stork’s-bill, Erodium cicutariam, in this photo help to give some scale.
Small Heath butterfly, Coenonympha pamphilus, nectaring on Redstem Stork’s-bill, Erodium cicutariam
Next we enjoyed the sight of several Brimstones dancing on by. One briefly landed and its camouflage proved so convincing that a Nomad bee even landed on its closed leaf-mimicking wings for a rest!
A Brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni, butterfly’s camouflage is so good that it fools a Nomad bee into landing!
Orange-tip butterflies were the most plentiful and confiding of the species we saw and I was lucky to spot two perched up mating, a first for me. They were perched on Hairy Rock-cress, Arabis hirsuta. Unfortunately for me, they weren’t entirely parallel and it was very breezy (the warmer than expected weather was brewing up a storm) so I couldn’t quite get both butterflies in focus simultaneously, but it was a lovely sight to behold nonetheless.
Mating pair of Orange-tip butterflies, Anthocharis cardamines perching on Hairy Rock-cress, Arabis hirsuta
The female Orange-tip butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines, has a green eye and mottled underside wings
Female Orange-tip butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines, basking on a grass seedhead with its wings open
We’d managed to spot just a few Grizzled Skippers along the way but they too were restless and camera shy. But just as we turned to head for home one landed on a buttercup for a few seconds, making a perfect end to a lovely canal-side walk. For more information about the history of the man-made cut off channel canal you can visit its wikipedia page
Grizzled Skipper butterfly, Pyrgus malvae, nectaring on a Buttercup