Jill Shaw B.A.

Early this year my sister asked me if I would like to go on holiday to the Isle of Wight , to 'hopefully' photograph Glanville Fritillaries. I took her up on the offer, and we had a wonderful holiday this May, both for weather, and  butterflies.

 

The Glanville Fritillary was discovered in Lincolnshire in the 17th century, but unfortunately is now only found on the south coast of the Isle of Wight,  sometimes in Hampshire and the Channel Islands

Heath Fritillary  found only in coppiced woodland in Essex and Kent, and on Exmoor , the Heath Fritillary is a rare butterfly similar in colouring to the Glanville on the upper side, but the undersides are different.

The Marsh Fritillary is the brightest of our fritillaries. It likes tussocky grass with devil's bit scabious as a food plant. A very short lived species only living a few days.

A woodland butterfly, the White Admiral likes shady woodland rides and sunny open areas with brambles for nectar.

 

The Marbled White butterfly is a pretty grassland butterfly, with a liking for the purple flowers, scabious, thistles, marjoram and knapweed.

Small Skipper : This tiny golden skipper is a common grassland butterfly that only lives for about a week.

Essex Skipper: The  Essex skipper is very similar to the small skipper. The difference being its antennae are tipped withblack all round , not just on top as in the small skipper. 

 

Silver Spotted Skippers : A rare butterfly found only on a few chalk grassland sites in southern England . They fly fast, close to the ground on short grass, landing briefly on short thistles and other low growing flowers. ( I can vouch for that!)

Large Skipper  

The largest of the golden skippers is

widespread on grass alongside hedgerows,

in meadows and on wasteland.

Dinghy Skipper : A tiny, brown and grey skipper - easily overlooked, or thought to be a moth, widely distributed, but declining.

Grizzled Skipper:

This skipper has several different habitats.

All suffice if  there are warm shelterd spots with suitable food plants, and short and  long vegetation. Increasingly rare resident of southern England . 

Wall Brown

After a year when I have been able to photograph some new butterflies and get  better photos of some others. It has also given me great pleasure to see a butterfly I have seen little of for a few years:The Wall Brown. Hopefully this is making a recovery after a poor spell.

People of Burgh - Jill Shaw 2009  

Jill Shaw Butterflies Page 2 2009