SMALL SKIPPER Thymelicus sylvestris

What is generally considered to be the most common Skipper in Britain is very scarce in our vicinity and is totally outnumbered by the extremely similar Essex Skipper. I was quite surprised to realise this fact, which can only be justified by careful examination of the antennae from below! A major feat in itself! The tips of the Essex's antennae are jet black, as if they have been dipped in ink. (See Essex Skipper for a comparison photo).

The female alights on the flower head of the Yorkshire fog and then crawls backwards down the grass until she feels the sheath with her abdomen, thence laying six or so eggs in the sheath. The last photo shows eggs being laid in the sheath of the grass.

ESSEX SKIPPER Thymelicus lineola

Not the best of photos admittedly, but you can see that the underside of the antennae have very defined black tips to them - lacking in the Small. It's even clearer in real life (the difficult bit is getting close without disturbing them!)

The one to the right of this is an Essex - compare with the Small Skipper photo. See how similar the two are?

LARGE SKIPPER Ochlodes venata

The male (left) is distinguished by the heavy diagonal black bars across the forewings - these release pheromones to attract the females during courtship.

Males are a joy to watch as they perch atop a favourite vantage point, such as a tall flower, and lurch at anything that passes through their territory, at amazing speed which is very difficult to keep your eyes on. They always return to the same spot.

BRIMSTONE Gonepteryx rhamni

The bright butter yellow is only present in the male, the female is a greenish-white colour, but in flight can easily be mistaken for a Large White. Brimstones never open their wings when settled.

This is the longest living British butterfly, the adults living for almost a year including hibernation. They hibernate in evergreen bushes, bramble, or ivy, where they look like leaves themselves. A good example of this can be seen on the right. They breed in the spring only, and the new butterflies that emerge in the high summer wander extensively.

LARGE WHITE Pieris brassicae

This, and the related Small White, are the two notorious 'Cabbage Whites'. These butterflies wander freely, looking for two things: nectar to keep them fuelled and brassica crops to lay their eggs on. Obviously all gardens have one or both, so these butterflies are very much at home in gardens. We do not actively encourage these two species, but in view of their mobility just mentioned and our garden being a haven for butterflies anyway, we get very good numbers of them.

SMALL WHITE Pieris rapae

Same general comments apply as for Large White.

GREEN-VEINED WHITE Pieris napi

The underside markings are a clear distinction between this and the Small White - the veins of the wings being noticeably picked out in green, as its name suggests.

This is NOT a Cabbage White. Although the larvae of the two Cabbage Whites will eat the foodplants of the Green-veined, it never happens vice versa. These are true butterflies of the countryside, their caterpillars feeding mostly on wild plants.

ORANGE TIP Anthocharis cardamines

Only the male has the distinctive orange tip to the forewings. To the novice, females could be mistaken for one of the other Whites, but the underside mottling is a sure give away (see photo above). Unlike the other Whites, this butterfly is only seen in the spring. This is because the caterpillars eat the developing seed pods of the various foodplants, which are only available in the early months of the season, not the leaves as with the other species that are double brooded.

Camouflage at its best. When settled with wings tightly closed on umbellifers, or in this case it's foodplant garlic mustard, the Orange Tip blends in perfectly with the background. a pupa camouflaged amongst twigs in the hedge bottom.

SMALL COPPER Lycaena phlaeas

COMMON BLUE Polyommatus icarus

The sexes of the Common Blue are totally distinct to look at - only the male is all-over blue, the female appearing to be a totally different species. Despite its name, it is not really a common butterfly - just the most common of the Blues and can be found in hundreds in healthy colonies, although they remain highly localised.

The underside markings are very ornate, and it is hard to imagine that when resting head down on grass or seed heads in dull weather and at night, theses butterflies become effectively camouflaged - but they do: from a distance the bobbing shapes appear to be grass heads.

BROWN ARGUS Aricia agestis

A total surprise sighting in September 2003 when a definite male was observed in the meadow area, chasing Common Blues and Small Coppers. Females have more pronounced orange markings. No known colonies in the area - so it only goes to show - a wandering female earlier in the season must have laid eggs nearby and this was the result. A few more were seen in 2004 and numbers slowly grew until the devastating summer of 2007 when I considered all was lost with this species - yet it bounced back with a vengeance the following season. Isn’t nature wonderful!?

HOLLY BLUE Celastrina argiolus

The female has the distinctive black border to the wings (discernible even in flight), which is lacking in the male who appears similar to the male Common Blue apart from being more of a sky blue shade. The underside lacks the typical Blue family mosaic, being a silvery grey with just a scattering of black dots.

This Blue behaves more like a Hairstreak in as much that it favours trees and shrubs to open countryside. It is generally found around holly trees and bushes but not exclusively. It wanders more than other Blues, which may explain it's presence in this locality, which was not initially really suited to this woodland butterfly.

WHITE ADMIRAL Ladoga camilla

Every now and then a totally unexpected one-off sighting occurs. It happened with the Silver-Washed Fritillary in our Derbyshire garden and now in the Lincolnshire equivalent we have had the first of hopefully many more sightings of White Admiral. This is an absolutely gorgeous woodland butterfly that amazes onlookers with its graceful and elegant gliding flight. It is a butterfly mostly located to the southern counties of England, but there are a few spasmodic colonies in Lincolnshire, but none very close to us. Or are there? Maybe tiny fragmented colonies exist unrecorded and it was a stray from one of these that we saw one day in June 2009. We have created the right sort of habitat for it, with open woodland glades and its foodplant honeysuckle occurs in shady spots which the butterflies prefer for egg-laying. So hopefully this is the start of a colonisation, similar to what has occurred in recent years with the Speckled Wood and Brown Argus.

RED ADMIRAL Vanessa atalanta

The most regular immigrant species to the British Isles, never failing to miss a summer over here. There is growing proof that this butterfly, unlike other migrants, can survive our winters these days - in fact we saw a few in April 2000 in our garden that were either very early migrants or had successfully overwintered here.

Such a striking contrast of black and scarlet wins many admirers. Often the last butterfly to be seen in the autumn, when it loves fallen or over ripe fruit, as does the Comma and Speckled Wood.

PAINTED LADY Cynthia cardui

Who can forget the Painted Lady invasion of 1996 when literally millions migrated into the UK- if only every year were the same. 2009 has been heralded as the all-time invasion! Yet in some years we go by without even seeing one. They often arrive with, and seen throughout the summer in the company of it's cousin, the Red Admiral, to which it is equally characterful and flamboyant. Unlike the Red admiral, it does not survive our winters. A very tattered migrant after its long journey.

SMALL TORTOISESHELL Aglais urticae

Probably the most well known British butterfly after the 'Cabbage Whites', this species is totally at home in gardens where it can be abundant. Very free roaming, the butterflies will however stay with you for weeks during late summer and autumn whilst feeding up for hibernation. This is only one of four species that hibernate as adult butterflies (the others being the Brimstone, Peacock, and Comma) therefore are always the first to be seen on the wing again in the spring. They enter dark cool places to hibernate (sometimes entering houses) where their sombre coloured undersides allow them to merge in with their surroundings.

PEACOCK Inachis io

An unmistakable and familiar butterfly, totally at home in gardens and often seen in company with Small Tortoiseshells and Red Admirals plus other Aristocrats. Another hibernator, seeking out similar quarters to the Tortoiseshell, and another nettle feeder. Unlike the Tortoiseshell and the Comma, this butterfly only has one brood a year - the ones seen in the spring after hibernation are the ones that emerged the previous summer, which go straight through the rest of the summer and winter without breeding.

COMMA Polygonia c-album

A truly individual butterfly with it's unusual scalloped wings and deep russet colour. Never seen in great numbers like the other Aristocrats, and usually in ones and twos, occasionally more. This butterfly is more of a loner than the others and is generally much scarcer anyway. More of a true woodland butterfly, but wanders more in the late summer when not breeding. Three broods seen each year (although, as with the Tortoiseshell, the first is the same as the last if you can follow me). Unusual in that the earliest batch of the first summer brood look and act differently, being much paler in colour and with less defined jagged wings. Known as form hutchinsoni these are the ones that produce the second brood, the later ones joining the second brood in hibernation, leaving further breeding until the spring.

This picture shows one feasting from rotting fruit, a delicacy of the Comma.

with wings closed, the comma mark from where the butterfly gets its name can be clearly seen. This is a male, the female underside is more bland. She is drinking honey dew from the leaves.

It can be seen here how the Comma successfully overwinters amongst dead leaves, resembling one itself.

SPECKLED WOOD Pararge aegeria

This is a real indication that we have created a true woodland habitat, simply by this woodland butterfly taking up residency in our garden in the last few years. As the woodland areas developed, the numbers of Speckled Woods increased, and now it is firmly established.

WALL BROWN Lasiommata megera

As can be seen from the pictures above, the sexes of the Wall Brown are quite different, the male (left) being noticeably darker and with diagonal black bands running across the forewings - scent scales used in courtship. It gets it's name from its delight of sunning itself on walls, rocks, paths, etc and flies and behaves more akin to an Aristocrat than the typical bobbing, leisurely nature of most of the Browns. It prefers open habitats and grassland areas.

Walls have become nationally rather scarce in recent years, so it is encouraging that our garden is starting to appear very suited to them - their numbers are steadily increasing after a very poor start that echoed the national decline. On pebbles with wings closed, it nicely blends into the background.

GATEKEEPER Pyronia tithonus

Alternatively less romantically known as the Hedge Brown, this Brown frequents hedgerows or shrubby areas, as well as actual woodland rides and clearings. In good colonies it can become very abundant indeed, and the numbers are very nicely growing in our garden where it happily breeds.

MEADOW BROWN Maniola jurtina

It is usually the male of most species that is the most flamboyant, but not in the case of the Meadow Brown, The rather drab male is on the left. A very common butterfly in Britain, and the most common Brown in our garden. Any type of grassy area will suit these butterflies, hence their abundance.

SMALL HEATH Coenonympha pamphillus

This tiny butterfly is one of the few that never open their wings once settled. Nevertheless it conveys it's own degree of charm and is lovely to see a few of them flitting around the garden. In heathland and open countryside where short grass prevails this is one of our commonest species, but it is incredibly difficult to get it to take to gardens, even large purposely designed ones like ours.

RINGLET Aphantopus hyperantus

When fresh, the males of this species are nearly jet black and look very striking with the faint white borders to their wings. All too soon though they become very drab and uninspiring - their ornate underside markings remain pretty however. Another butterfly that is under no obvious threat, very common in strong localities, more at home in and around woodland than true open situations. The steep sided sheltered dyke banks are very much to their liking, and now they are spilling out into our garden and making a home for themselves.