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Butterflies Page 24

Image Taken on 03 Aug 2024 at 11:01    Image of day on 20 Sep 2024

A pristine Peacock Butterfly perched on a spread of Oxford Ragwort flowers.


Ref: 20240920_r70_20240803_1101_056 peacock butterfly on ragwort flowers(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 18 Apr 2007 at 17:46    Image of day on 07 May 2007

The plant 'Self-Heal' has gone rampant this year. The Peacock Butterfly (which will have hibernated away the winter) has a welcome feed.


Ref: 20070507_p34_20070418_1746_285 peacock butterfly on self-heal (rotate & crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 23 Jul 2006 at 17:35    Image of day on 06 Aug 2006

Peacock butterflies are very common but beautiful nonetheless.


Ref: 20060806_d10_20060723_1735_928 peacock butterfly on teasel(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 22 Jul 2006 at 18:09    Image of day on 31 Jul 2006

Teasels are all over the place and attract all sort of nectar feeders.


Ref: 20060731_p32_20060722_1809_939 peacock butterfly on teasel(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 12 Jul 2020 at 12:18    Image of day on 18 Aug 2020

A Peacock Butterfly enjoying a Thistle flower


Ref: 20200818_d73_20200712_1218_062 peacock butterfly on thistle flower(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 14 Apr 2022 at 13:00    Image of day on 17 May 2022

Butterflies tend to look for somewhere already warm to bask. This means they make for the ugliest human surfaces that they can find!


Ref: 20220517_d72_20220414_1300_052 peacock butterfly perched on corrugated iron(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 29 Jul 2023 at 10:04    Image of day on 21 Sep 2023

A Peacock Butterfly perched on a ground-level thistle leaf. When you are small enough, all those sharp spines become just a bit of 'texture'.


Ref: 20230921_df3_20230729_1004_041 peacock butterfly perched on ground level thistle leaf(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 26 Jul 2024 at 15:09    Image of day on 09 Sep 2024

A Peacock Butterfly perched on a frond of Hop Sedge - the plant that dominates the Duck Pond.


Ref: 20240909_df3_20240726_1509_023 peacock butterfly perched on hop sedge frond at duck pond(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 14 Apr 2016 at 13:19    Image of day on 22 May 2016

A peacock Butterfly contrasting itself with the brilliant yellow of a cultivated Daffodil. The butterfly is in good condition considering that it will have spent the winter somewhere safe while waiting for the Spring!


Ref: 20160522_df3_20160414_1319_033 peacock butterfly perched on outside of daffodil(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 18 Jul 2022 at 08:04    Image of day on 03 Sep 2022

A more 'classical' view of the Peacock Butterfly.


Ref: 20220903_d73_20220718_0804_017 peacock butterfly resting in hedge(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 13 Aug 2017 at 14:38    Image of day on 01 Oct 2017

A Peacock Butterfly sunning itself on the clover.


Ref: 20171001_df3_20170813_1438_342 peacock butterfly warming itself on clover(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 22 Jul 2014 at 17:41    Image of day on 27 Sep 2014

Here on a Buddleia this Peacock Butterfly has it's proboscis clearly down the centre of one of the florets. The Proboscis is a figure of 8 cross-section which stops it getting in a tangle when it rolls it up.


Ref: 20140927_df2_20140722_1741_253 peacock butterfly with proboscis in centre of buddleia flower (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 30 Jul 2015 at 17:53    Image of day on 25 Sep 2015

This Peacock Butterfly has it's proboscis clearly inside the solitary remaining flower at the top of this teasel head.


Ref: 20150925_df3_20150730_1753_120 peacock butterfly with proboscis in solitary teasel flower (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 29 Mar 2014 at 11:00    Image of day on 11 May 2014

A welcome but very tatty Peacock Butterfly, awake after hibernating through the winter, ready to do the all important business of making a new generation.


Ref: 20140511_df2_20140329_1100_041 peacock butterfly with worn wing tips (first of 2014)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 05 Jun 2016 at 15:52    Image of day on 20 Jul 2016

A rather faded Peacock Butterfly (that will have overwintered) nevertheless makes a beautiful splash of colour with the delicate blue of Green Alkanet flowers.


Ref: 20160720_df3_20160605_1552_086 peacock butterfly with worn wings on green alkanet(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 13 Oct 2020 at 13:00    Image of day on 26 Nov 2020

Well away from the universally loved yellow Buddleia, these Red Admiral Butterflies, along with wasps and Greenbottles, drinks the juice of a fermenting fruit. Apparently Butterflies can get drunk from fermenting fruit, and get so woozy that you can pick them up.
The butterfly on the left has had a couple of bird pecks on the wing.
Red Admirals used always to migrate south for the winter or succumb to the cold, But recent mild winters allow them to overwinter, even been seen flying in December and January, so our recent unexpected sightings are a trend. Greenbottles were forever disturbing the butterflies - you can see another one flying in upper lefti


Ref: 20201126_df3_20201013_1300_026 2 red admiral butterflies feeding on rotten fruit and greenbottle flies in(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 25 Jul 2023 at 08:50    Image of day on 16 Sep 2023

We are delightfully 'awash' with Red Admiral Butterflies in numbers we don't ever remember seeing before. Here are two feasting on a Teasel flower with the two rings of flowers now working their way up and down.


Ref: 20230916_df3_20230725_0850_029 2 red admiral butterflies feeding on teasel head with 2 rings of flowers(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 27 Jul 2017 at 12:57    Image of day on 05 Sep 2017

We seem to have more than usual Red Admiral Butterflies this year, increasing the chance of 2 on the same teasel at once, even if for only a few seconds. The insect on the right is pristine, but the other seems to have been around for longer and had time to get caught in the beak of a bird, escaping by leaving a bit of it's wing in the beak.


Ref: 20170905_df3_20170727_1257_025 2 red admiral butterflies on either side of teasel(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 08 Sep 2014 at 13:29    Image of day on 18 Nov 2014

2 Red Admiral butterflies resting on some weed seed heads tangled in some the branches of a young plum tree. Although they show well here we hadn't noticed the one on the right until the one on the left landed next to it. Black is usually a very good camouflage, except in snow!


Ref: 20141118_df2_20140908_1329_519 2 red admiral butterflies on seed down (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 30 Aug 2009 at 10:33    Image of day on 08 Oct 2009

We offered the pair a feed on a yellow buddleia flower (on which we netted one of them) and took the opportunity for some portraits.


Ref: 20091008_da1_20090830_1033_205_ft1 2 red admiral butterflies on yellow buddleia (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


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