Butterfly mind

[anef]

It's difficult to work in my room at the moment as it overlooks one of my neighbour's buddleias.  Every time my gaze drifts away from the screen I spot another butterfly that I don't recognise, and I either have to try to identify it or rush outside to get a better view.

I should explain that I'm actually very ignorant about butterflies, and the ones that I can identlfy without looking them up are Cabbage Whites and Red Admirals.  And we've had plently of the former.  But we've also had Peacocks (what seems like hundreds of them), and I have also spotted a Comma, some small Tortoiseshells, and the other day a Gatekeeper.  That wasn't even on the ten most common list! (See  here for pictures:  http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/identification.asp)

It has been the most astonishing summer for butterflies.  Our garden is (quite unintentionally) bee and butterfly friendly - both we and our neighbour have a number of buddleias, and we've got quite a few herbs that insects love - lavender, sage, pot marjoram, oh, and a thistle.  So normally we get lots of bees.  But I've never seen so many butterflies.  Let's hope that they breed successfully.

Comments

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

The butterflies have been one of the many joys of this amazing summer. Like you, our garden has lots of the kinds of plants pollinators love (lavenders, herbs, buddleia - all the flowers in the grass we've let go wild), and likewise, it's more down to inertia on our part than intent. We've always had loads of different bees, which makes for a lovely humming noise of an afternoon. But last couple of so called 'summers' we'd not seen a single butterfly, it was so wet. And now - wow! Lots of cabbage whites, lots of peacocks and - thanks to your link - some which I think are either commas or speckled woods. Thanks for link, btw - means I can put names to them better now.