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Image-of-the-Day by Subject
Butterflies Page 26
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.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
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.
.jpg)
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
.jpg)
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.
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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.
.jpg)
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!
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
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.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20091008_da1_20090830_1033_205_ft1 2 red admiral butterflies on yellow buddleia (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 28 Jul 2025
at 10:54 Image of day on 24 Sep 2025
A Red Admiral Butterfly on some ''weeds' with wings open showing the
top surface of the wings.
.jpg)
Ref: 20250924_d72_20250728_1054_016 red admiral butterfly(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 14 Jul 2024
at 17:56 Image of day on 19 Aug 2024
The underwing of a Red Admiral Butterfly.
We have heard reports that they are exceptionally abundant this year,
and we are certainly seeing more than usual.
.jpg)
Ref: 20240819_d71_20240714_1756_014 red admiral butterfly(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Sep 2020
at 16:12 Image of day on 29 Oct 2020
A pristine Red Admiral Butterfly.
Next stop the south coast for a mass-migration to Europe.
.jpg)
Ref: 20201029_d73_20200915_1612_045 red admiral butterfly(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 20 Jun 2020
at 12:41 Image of day on 26 Jul 2020
A Red Admiral Butterfly warms itself in the afternoon sunshine.
.jpg)
Ref: 20200726_d73_20200620_1241_056 red admiral butterfly(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 28 Sep 2020
at 10:52 Image of day on 12 Nov 2020
A surprise was to find 3 pristine Red Admiral Butterflies feeding from the
flowers on the top of a 3m high Yellow Buddleia that came with the house
30 years ago.
This Buddleia is so vigorous that we take it down to 'knee' height
when the flowers have finally been stopped by the first frost. It is a 'magnet'
for butterflies and moths at the end of each flowering season.
.jpg)
Ref: 20201112_d73_20200928_1052_044 red admiral butterfly - 1 of 3 pristine feeding on yellow buddleia(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 08 Sep 2014
at 13:27 Image of day on 18 Nov 2014
Several Red Admiral butterflies were sunning themselves on the
orchard apple and plum trees. The rotting & fermenting fallen
fruit attracts a variety of butterflies to feed and
sometimes get a little 'drunk'!
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20141118_df2_20140908_1327_493 red admiral butterfly basking on tree bark (crop 1)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 08 Sep 2014
at 13:27 Image of day on 18 Nov 2014
A detail from the above.
(r+mb id@432).jpg)
Ref: 20141118_df2_20140908_1327_493 red admiral butterfly basking on tree bark (crop 2)(r+mb id@432).jpg
Image Taken on 09 Oct 2008
at 16:16 Image of day on 03 Nov 2008
We found and photographed this beautiful butterfly Chrysalis
without knowing the species. Next day we brought it into our
insect rearing tank to observe it ...
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20081103_p34_20081009_1616_310 red admiral butterfly chrysalis hanging from dogwood leaf (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 02 Oct 2010
at 12:47 Image of day on 25 Nov 2010
We have a yellow Buddleia that has always kept flowering until
the first air frost. We seem to have a solitary Red admiral
around the plot that is a regular on these flowers. Here it is
rolling up it's proboscis after feeding on nectar - there is
still a drop of fluid at the top of the curve.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20101125_df1_20101002_1247_464 red admiral butterfly coiling up proboscis 2 of 2 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Oct 2008
at 08:33 Image of day on 03 Nov 2008
... and here is the emerged insect - a Red Admiral butterfly.
Released when the weather improved in the afternoon, we saw it around for
several days feeding on our autumn flowers.
Click to see a
Red Admiral top view
taken in 2006.
.jpg)
Ref: 20081103_p34_20081015_0833_419 red admiral butterfly emerged from chrysalis through glass tank side(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Jul 2023
at 12:49 Image of day on 10 Sep 2023
A Red Admiral, here NOT showing their vivid top of wing colours,
has their proboscis deep into the nectary of this blackberry flower
.jpg)
Ref: 20230910_d72_20230715_1249_026 red admiral butterfly feeding from blackberry flower(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 05 Sep 2021
at 10:47 Image of day on 16 Oct 2021
The Yellow Buddleia we inherited has produced a mass of flowers this year.
Here a Red Admiral Butterfly.
.jpg)
Ref: 20211016_df3_20210905_1047_067 red admiral butterfly feeding from yellow buddleia flower(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 14 Sep 2023
at 10:34 Image of day on 05 Nov 2023
The previously generation of Red admiral Butterflies enjoyed feeding on the
Blackberry flowers, and may even have fertilised the fruit from which this
one is taking their fill.
.jpg)
Ref: 20231105_df3_20230914_1034_066 red admiral butterfly feeding on blackberry fruit(r+mb id@768).jpg
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