Early butterflies

This orange tip butterfly is the latest species to be seen at Filnore this year, photographed by Alan Watts on 1st April.  This shows the beautifully patterned underside of the hind wing but you can just see a twinge of orange on the concealed  forewing, showing on the left hand side, which shows it's a male.  The females are just white.

The foodplant of the orange tip caterpillars, cuckoo flower, is just appearing this week.

Several butterfly species hibernate and are therefore able to get off to an early start in spring.  The pale yellow Brimstones are usually the first.

Peacocks have also been spotted

and even some commas.

These last three species have been seen but not photographed 

so the photos are from wikipedia. 

If you see a butterfly at Filnore Woods that you can identify, please let us know at filnorefriends@gmail.com.  This will help us to see whether we are providing a good habitat for them.