BUTTERFLIES

 Some butterflies recently captured on camera by Alan Watts.

The Speckled Wood can often be seen sunbathing on a leaf or flitting about busily in dappled shade.

The Peacock butterfly, so called for the eye marks on its wings, has a distinctive flying style: powerful wing beats followed by lots of gliding.

People sometimes mistake this for a red admiral, but red admirals are black and red and white, whereas this Small Tortoiseshell is orange and black and yellow.

Can you see her?  A female Brimstone hanging upside down pretending to be a leaf.  The male is yellower - the original butter-coloured fly.

Only the male Orange Tip butterfly has orange tips to its wings.  The females could be mistaken for a cabbage white.  This male is nectaring on a nourishing dandelion, but the females lay their eggs on the caterpillar food plants Lady's Smock or Jack-by-the-Hedge.

Thanks, Alan, for these pics.  June and July will bring lots more butterflies out.