Minsmere's Butterflies...

On Monday I again visited the RSPB's Minsmere reserve. As you arrive you are confronted by a vast bank of buddleia bushes that, at this time of year, are full of butterflies. After studying these with one of the volunteers to see what could be found I rather got a taste for it and spent most the rest of my time there trying to photograph as many species (some I knew, some I didn't) as I could find. I apologise if I've got the identification of any of them wrong, I'm still learning them! So here we go...

So we shall start with the whites. First, possibly the most obvious, the large whites that were all over the buddleia and pretty much everywhere else.

Then a small white:

And finally a green-veined white:

Now for some other common ones. The splendid peacock:

The small tortoiseshell:

A comma:

A painted lady:

Meadow brown with wings both open and closed:

Gatekeeper again with wings open and closed:

I think this one is a grayling:

A speckled wood:

No jokes about small policemen, a small copper:

What I believe to be a common blue, both wings open and closed:

A brown argus:

A few pictures of a purple hairstreak (a first for me):

What I think is a small skipper:

There were dozens of these around as well. I'm led to believe that they a silver-y moths:

Finally, I have no idea what this is, clearly not a butterfly and more of a beetle, but amazing!

That was everything from Minsmere. I'll finish with a picture of a clouded yellow that I took down in Kent but I've seen in quite a few places this year. Must be a good year for them because I had never seen one before this summer.

 

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