Photographs

Dingy skipper

On the 22nd a nice warm sunny day we went to Incombe Hole near Ivinghoe Beacon as it has a range of less common smaller butterflies many of which can be seen in one visit if you time it just right.

Dingy skipper

The hole is quite hard work to get back to the carpark from as it is up hills some of which are very steep, but its worth the effort for some lovely butterflies.

Dingy skipper

This is perhaps one of the less exciting small butterfliesto be seen it is quite dull and only has a 29mm wing span so is easily overlooked unless you are looking for it.

Dingy skipper

Their flight perion is early May to late June so well cover the period near the end of May when the most species can be seen at thi site.

Dingy skipper

They are quite flighty, but fortunately they tend to land near where they have just taken off from, making them easy to track.

Dingy skipper

Though small they are quite agressive flying up and attacking much larger butterflies passing by.

Grizzled Skipper

Now this is a little jewel, only 27 mm wingspan and very pale in flight, it can easily be mistaken for a small moth.

Grizzled skipper

This is one I often miss when I visit the site though it is around it can be hard to find and even harder to photograph.

Grizzled skipper

It flies earlier than the Dingy, very early May, possibly the very end of April until nearly mid June of course dependent on the weather, some butterflies seem to finish a bit early in recent years.

Grizzled skipper

They are quite pretty in a delicate sort of way. I suspect very few people have seen one in the UK but a lot have probably walked past one.

Grizzled skipper

We got lucky and met a couple who had found these two mating and showed us where the were in the long grass, they were so occupied that they were less flighty than usual.

grizzled skipper inkpen may 2029 52.jpg

Duke of Burgundy

This is one of the jewels in the crown of Incombe Hole, it is a rare butterfly, very specific about its habitat and popular anong naturalists, and on this visit we saw lots of them.

Duke of Burgundy

Most years when we visit if we are lucky we may see 15 or 20 this year it must have been at least twice that number they we even seen on top of the slope that lead down to the sheltered valley where they usually occour. I hope this means they are having a good year and this was not just a good day.

Duke of Burgundy

It is the same size as the Dingy Skipper 29mm wingspan and broadly similar in colour but easy to tell apart once they have landed.

Duke of Burgundy

This is the one with the shortest flight period, only about a month from typically mid May to mid June.

Duke of Burgundy

They are heavily dependent on cowslips, the laval food plant, and the this is a very good area for them.

Duke of Burgundy

The first place we ever saw this butterfly was Cerne Giant Hill in Dorset another very steep hill side it is also good for all the same small butterflies as Incombe Hole.

Marsh Fritillary

Now this is a little cracker a very attractive butterfly that is a more recent addition to the fauna of this sight, I believe they were released here in 2020 and have done well since.

Marsh fritillary

It's not a big butterfly, but much bigger than the others already mentioned at 48mm wingspan.

Marsh Fritillary

Its flight period is from 3rd week May to the same in June, though last year we visited in the 3rd week of July to find they had finished.

Marsh Fritillary

This time when we visited we only found 4, it is rightvat the begining of their flight period, there were more of us looking for them than there was butterflies.

Small Blue

I have not seen small blues here before, but someone else pointed one out to us, and after that we found 2 or 3 for ourselves.

Small Blue

While looking for the marsh frits we met a man who clearly had a butterfly on his finger, it ws this pristine small blue, he had put a drop of grape juice on his finger which attracted the little jewel.

Small Blue

Living up to it's name this is the smallest so far at 25mm wingspan, it flies from the 3rd week of May until the end of June, we were luck to see them.

Small Copper

This butterfly has 3 broods a year. it first appears end of April and may still be seen at the end of October, with 2 breaks between the broods.

Small Copper

It is an odd butterfly it is often found protecting a very small territory, if disturbed it won't go far, it seems to turn up any time at a surprising range of sights,but we don't see it very often. I don't think I could ever go out and deliberately find one.

Small Copper

Though called Small it is bigger than many of the butterflies discussed here, it hs a wing span of 32, and it certainly punches above it's weight attacking any butterfly that flies over its territory.

Small Copper

One or two people told us there were lots of these about but we only saw two.

Brown Argus

Another 29mm wingspan, though it is completely brown and called a brown argus this is a "blue" butterfly closely related to all the various "blues"

Brown Argus

This flies end May to Late June and again in August and was quite common on this visit, often looking a bit tatty but we did find a few pristine examples which were really splendid looking.

Brown Argus

I find the photos of Brown Argus and Female Common Blue rather hard to seperate.

Corn bunting

On the way back to the car from the hole I heard a corn bunting calling and found it on a clump of scrub, I really wanted a photo of this bird as I almost never see one but only had a 300mm lens with me so this is the rather sad result.

Painted Lady

On the 26th while looking out of the window at the garden and saw a large butterfly flying around almost frantically, after a while I found it in the garden on a scabious.

Painted lady

This butterfly cannot survive our winters in any of its stages so those we get are migrants from Europe and North Africa, some years we don't get many at all by this year is already being called a good one for them.

Painted Lady

It is a big butterfly, around 65mm wingspan dwarfing all of the ones aforementioned, and if seen with its wings open it is very beautiful.

Painted Lady

It remained on the same plant for about 10 minutes, if I flushed it, it just flew round in a circle and landed back on it, but never with it's wings open.

Brimstone

While I was photographing the Lady, a brimstone flew into the garden and disappeared into a rose bush, hiding itself very well, if Have never seen this before.

Privet hawk moth

On the 29th I tried out my moth trap for the first time this year, it had been a very warm night and there were lots of moths in the trap.

Privet hawk moth

Hot sunny days followed by warm nights tend to bring out the moths, i was very pleased to find two Privet Hawk Moths in the trap

Privet hawk moth

This is a really impressive moth, it is Britains biggest resident moth and ties with the convoulvulous hawk moth if migrants are included.

Privet hawk moth

Though I realise it is not very scientific and I don't know if the moths mind or not but every year I look forward to handling these impressive beauties it feels vey special to interact to such beautiful and secretive creatures.

Small Heath

This poor little butterfly can be seen in lots of environments and is not uncommon, but it is easy to ignore, we saw them on our visit to Incombe Hole but never bothered to take any photos. It is hard to take photos of as it rarely perches anywhere except on short grass.

Small Heath

Though it is a common grassland butterfly I have not seen one in my garden before but this one turned up and hung around all afternoon moving around the recently mowed lawn.

Small Heath

This is a wide spread butterfly over most of the UK, with a long flight period starting mid May and going on until the end of September, yet most people do not know it exists.

Painted lady

On the 30th this one showed well with open wings in the garden but the poor thing was very tatty.

Painted lady

It's is truly amazing that they can fly here from North Africa, not surprising it's tatty.