The rocky summits of Buttermilk and Rosewall Hills near St Ives, Cornwall are not the type of places you’d normally expect to find migrant butterflies! So the two Painted Lady and two Red Admirals seen basking on the huge granite … Read More
This Painted Lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui, is our first migrant butterfly of the year and was seen warming itself up on a sheltered patch of dried grass at Rosemullion Head, near Falmouth. Butterflies have been very scarce so far this … Read More
An exciting new Cornwall butterfly and moth breeding group has been set up. The main aims of the group are to establish a centre where the methods of breeding native Cornish species of lepidoptera can be learnt and then passed … Read More
First butterfly of the year! – 4 Small Tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae, have been seen in and around our Falmouth garden over the last couple of days (8/9 March). Worringly these are our first butterflies of the year! Normally by now … Read More
This male and female Small Skipper butterfly were seen copulating on Bramble at Windmill Farm Nature Reserve, on the Lizard in Cornwall during the BioBlitz at the end of July. From the underside both sexes look very similar but when … Read More
Butterfly Conservations ‘Big Butterfly Count’ national survey involves spending fifteen minutes between 14 July and 5 August counting butterflies. The counts can take place anywhere in the country and in any habitat; gardens, towns, schools, in the countryside, any records … Read More
Small Tortoiseshell butterfly numbers are still on the decline. I always look forward to receiving “Butterfly“, the magazine of Butterfly Conservation, but I have to admit that I often finish the read feeling a little bit depressed. Despite all the … Read More
The first small wave of Painted Lady butterflies we have seen this year arriving in off the sea from the continent greeted us on the cliffs at Poldhu Cove on the Lizard on Bank Holiday Monday. Most were showing wear … Read More
Last weeks small influx of Red Admirals into the garden was the first sign of butterfly migration we’ve seen this year in the far south west of Cornwall. This species is the most commonly recorded migrant butterfly visiting these shores … Read More
A very fresh male Silver-studded Blue was flying amongst the Common Blue and Brown Argus butterflies at Glanville’s (Pennans) Field near Penhale Dunes on the 1st of June. This stunning butterfly stood out boldly from the already fast fading other … Read More
This is the appropriately named Orange-tip butterfly which is on the wing at the moment. It’s only the male Orange-tip that has orange tips to its forewings and the plainer female can easily be mistaken for either a Small White … Read More
These two fritillaries are very similar and although the Pearl-bordered is much scarcer than the Small Pearl-bordered there are sites where they occur in the same habitat and their flight periods overlap. These are the earliest fritillary butterfly species to … Read More