Marbled White Butterflies

How to… Identify UK Butterfly Species

/ Laura Tuke / 1 Comment

A flash of colour flitting by in the heat of the summer sun. Twisting this way and that, showing off amazing aerial acrobatics above a meadow of long, waving grass. A butterfly, small but standing out against a backdrop of browns, yellows, reds, blues and whites. Floating like a leaf down to a flower, the butterfly stops, flicking its wings before coming to a stop, wings outstretched in the sunshine. What could this beauty be?

Butterflies come in all shapes, sizes and colours, and can be found in a variety of habitats, from big cities to more remote areas. They are also a popular cultural symbol across the globe, with symbolism ranging from rebirth and transformation to representing the human soul. Along with their long history of capturing the mind and imagination of people, in nature, butterflies are great indicators of the health of habitats and are an important part of the food chain. As is the common story right now, butterflies are unfortunately threatened by habitat loss and degradation, as well as climate change, pesticide use, and invasive species. They need our help!

To be able to help butterflies, we need to understand them better. In the UK, we have 59 species, with only 2 being migrants. Though butterflies are more noticeable for people to identify, most Brits can only name but a handful of species. As we ease into summer, now is a great time to brush up your knowledge of what species you can identify. Here’s 13 to get you started!

Butterflies

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni)

  • Family: White and Yellow butterflies
  • Size: Large (60-74mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Look like veined-leaves with pale-yellow undersides and an orange dot on each wing. Uppersides: Males= sulphurous yellow; Female= paler in colour
  • Caterpillar food plants: Buckthorn and Alder Buckthorn
  • On the wing: Can be seen throughout the year, but most commonly during spring
  • Winter: Hibernate as adults in wooded areas
  • Distribution: Common in England and Wales, less common in Ireland, and very rare in Scotland

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

  • Family: Brush-footed butterflies
  • Size: Medium (45-60mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Bright orange wings with a black pattern, white patch close to each outer top edge, and a border of blue half-moons. Underside dark and light brown
  • Caterpillar food plants: Nettles
  • On the wing: March-October
  • Winter: Hibernate as adults in sites, such as tree hollows and sheds
  • Distribution: Widespread throughout Britain

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

  • Family: Brush-footed butterflies
  • Size: Large (64-78mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Black wings with red bands and white markings. Underside is similar, but paler and more mottled
  • Caterpillar food plants: Nettles
  • On the wing: March-October
  • Winter: Hibernate as adults
  • Distribution: Widespread throughout Britain

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

  • Family: Brush-footed butterflies
  • Size: Medium/Large (58-74mm)
  • Butterfly appearance: Orange wings with black and white markings. Underside is similar, but paler and more mottled
  • Caterpillar food plants: Thistles and sometimes nettles and mallows
  • On the wing: March-October
  • Winter: Migrate from Africa each spring
  • Distribution: Widespread across Britain

Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)

  • Family: Brush-footed (brown) butterflies
  • Size: Medium (37-48mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Orange and brown wings on top with a black false eye on each wing. Males are smaller and richer in colour than females, with distinct dark band across the forewing. Underside of the forewing is largely orange and the hindwing yellow and brown
  • Caterpillar food plants: Fine grasses, such as fescues
  • On the wing: June-September
  • Winter: Hibernate as caterpillars
  • Distribution: Most common in southern and central England and Wales

Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)

  • Family: Brush-footed (brown) butterflies
  • Size: Medium (53-58mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Distinctive black and white chequered wings that vary in pattern between individuals. Undersidesnot so brightly marked with eye-spots and grey or yellowish bands
  • Caterpillar food plants: Grasses, such as red fescue and sheep’s-fescue
  • On the wing: June-August
  • Winter: Hibernate as caterpillars
  • Distribution: Southern and central England and Wales

Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)

  • Family: Brush-footed (brown) butterflies
  • Size: Medium (42-52mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Begin velvety with deep blackish brown wings bordered by white. Iconic rings on wings vary in number, size and shape. Females larger with more pronounced markings
  • Caterpillar food plants: Various grasses including cock’s-foot and tufted hair-grass
  • On the wing: June-August
  • Winter: Hibernate as caterpillars
  • Distribution: Everywhere apart from northern Scotland

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

  • Family: Brush-footed (brown) butterflies
  • Size: Medium (46-56mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Dark brown with cream spots, though the female’s are larger. Forewings have a false eye and hindwings have three false eyes. Undersides mottled brown
  • Caterpillar food plants: Various grasses including false brome, cock’s-foot, Yorkshire fog, and common couch
  • On the wing: March-October
  • Winter: Hibernate as caterpillars or a chrysalis
  • Distribution: Throughout England (except the far north), Wales and Ireland, and in northern Scotland

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)

  • Family: Brush-footed (brown) butterflies
  • Size: Medium (40-60mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Male= dark brown with dark scent patch on forewing and faint orange smudge; Female= lighter brown with more orange on wings. Underside is largely orange with mottled brown hindwing
  • Caterpillar food plants: Wide range of grasses from fine fescues to coarse cock’s-foot
  • On the wing: May-September
  • Winter: Hibernate as caterpillars
  • Distribution: Widespread across Britain

Comma (Polygonia c-album)

  • Family: Brush-footed butterflies
  • Size: Medium/Large (50-64mm)
  • Butterfly appearance: Orange wings with brown patterns and scalloped edges to wings. Mottled underside with white, comma-like mark on hindwing
  • Caterpillar food plants: Nettle, elm and hop
  • On the wing: Spring after hibernation; Summer brood= June-July; Autumn brood= August-September
  • Winter: Hibernate as adults, camouflaged as a leaf
  • Distribution: Widespread across England and Wales, rare in southern Scotland and Northern Ireland

Peacock (Aglais io)

  • Family: Brush-footed butterflies
  • Size: Large (63-75mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Red wings with four large false eyes. Undersides almost black
  • Caterpillar food plants: Nettles
  • On the wing: Spring after hibernation, and June-September
  • Winter: Hibernate as adults in hollow trees and buildings
  • Distribution: Widespread across Britain

Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)

  • Family: Skippers
  • Size: Small (25-34mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Orange on top with a black edge, and paler undersides. Male= dark stripe in centre of fore-wing. Antenna tip is orange below
  • Caterpillar food plants: Yorkshire fog and other tall grasses
  • On the wing: June-September
  • Winter: Hibernate as caterpillars
  • Distribution: Widespread up to North Yorkshire and Scottish border

Large Skipper (Ochlodes venatus)

  • Family: Skippers
  • Size: Small (28-36mm wide)
  • Butterfly appearance: Wings rich brown with orange patches, but male has a dark bar in the centre of the forewing. Underside mottled orange
  • Caterpillar food plants: Cock’s-foot and other tall grasses
  • On the wing: May-September
  • Winter: Hibernate as caterpillars
  • Distribution: Throughout England, Wales, and in Dumfries and Galloway

Wildlife Photos for 2021

/ Laura Tuke / 1 Comment

Last year was an unusual one for us all, as we got used to a new reality, but for me it was also a year of colour, amazing wildlife, and fabulous adventures. I learnt alot and was able to continue to grow as a person, which includes my skill in wildlife photography and passion for communicating nature with you all. To celebrate, here’s a collection of my nature photos spanning 2021, capturing a range of themes, species and stories, and holding a feel good factor. Enjoy!

January

I began my year taking advantage of frosty mornings to capture the birds relying on our garden during the winter. Here a starling looking magnificent in its speckled plumage.

February

In 2021 I made it my mission to take my first up close photos of snowdrops. I enjoyed the challenge, brightening up a gloomier start to my year.

March

As the first signs of spring began to arrive, my focus turned to the ground and colourful spring flowers. Here a celandine peaks out its sunshine head from a thick cluster of green leaves.

April

As spring burst into life, my focus turned to the animal species now becoming active in the rural landscape. Here is a relaxed hare (and pheasant) that I ended up spending a sunny afternoon watching feed on this hillside.
Each year grey wagtails are becoming a more and more frequent sight on my family’s farmland. We now have a soft spot for them as they brighten gloomy winter days and add a flash of colour in spring sunshine.

May

In 2021 I bought my very first macro lens which I was very excited about. It was great fun to head out with no set challenge, and just see what I could find!

June

Last year was definitely the year of butterflies for me. I had alot of fun expanding my knowledge of species and getting to see an increasing number living on my family’s land, such as this meadow brown.

July

A series of photos that I took of this ladybird became some of my favourites for myself and my family in 2021!
Another one of my 2021 favourites, a spectacular marbled white!

August

There’s something special about a sunrise over water with pinks, oranges and yellows streaked across the sky like a watercolour.

September

One of my favourite places to be is between two ears exploring the countryside. Here I also had the golden glow of a setting autumn sun to make my ride even more magical.

October

Autumn has some of the best sunsets, with everyday promising something different. Here an oak tree holds on to its leaves as autumn continues its advance through the landscape.

November

A magical part of late autumn is seeing the sun rise over dewy fields covered in a blanket of wafting spiders’ webs. These are produced by thousands of small spiders active before winter arrives.

December

To round off the year, one of my wildlife activities was to plant some new fruiting trees and shrubs down in my family’s conservation field (here a crab apple). Tree planting is definitely a rewarding activity at this time of year!

Here’s to new adventures in 2022!

How to… Identify Chalkland Wildflowers

/ Laura Tuke / Leave a comment

Colourful, radiant, buzzing with life, a piece of paradise in the summer sunshine. All words to describe a small piece of chalk habitat nestled within the heart of my family’s farm in Dorset. Amidst a clay-dominated landscape, this small creation aims to emulate the approximately 41,000 hectares of lowland chalk grassland that can still be found across the UK. This super rich habitat contains over 40 species of flowering plants in every one square metre, giving chalk grassland its reputation as the tropical rainforest of Europe! Sadly though, 50% of chalk grassland has already been lost in Dorset alone since the 1950s.

In 2017, my Dad made the decision to transform a small triangular area of land on our farm into our very own chalk paradise. Though we do not live immediately on chalk downland, it can be found to the North and South of us. This makes our location ideal to create stopover habitat or a wildlife corridor, for the myriad of species that rely on these diverse plant communities. Following bringing in 40 tonnes of quarried chalk and lots of wildflower plugs and seeds, we now have a thriving 10m by 3m and 2m in height chalk mound.

Though my family’s chalk habitat is still in its relative infancy, over time it is transforming into a wildlife haven. From Grasshoppers and Marbled White Butterflies to blue Butterflies and Carder Bees, new species are popping up each and every year. This mini habitat has also been a great place for my mum to teach me all about the plant species that call chalkland grassland home. With her inspiration, I have put together a simple guide to identifying just some of the many wildflower species that are appearing on our mound.

Chalkland Wildflowers

Wild Marjoram (Origanum vulgare)Wild Marjoram

  • Family: Mint
  • Lifespan: Perennial (lives for several years)
  • Size: Short to medium height (30-60cm)
  • Stems: Erect, dark-red, downy and either round or square
  • Leaves: Oval, often slightly toothed, stalked, and 1.5-4.5cm in length
  • Flowers: Dark purple buds in loose clustered heads, opening to pale purple 6-8mm long flowers. Strongly aromatic. Flowers July-September
  • Range: Found throughout the UK (particularly in the South), but scarcer in Scotland
  • Fun Facts: This culinary herb is a symbol of happiness descended from Roman legend, with Origanum meaning ‘mountain joy’

Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria)Kidney Vetch

  • Family: Legume
  • Lifespan: Annual (lives for one year) or perennial
  • Size: Sprawling and medium in height (up to 60cm), but very variable
  • Stems: Silkily hairy, round, and often greyish
  • Leaves: In pairs, they are silky white below and green above, and are 30-60mm in length
  • Flowers: Yellow, orange or a fiery red, and downy-white below. They are found in single heads (12-15mm across) or sometimes pairs. Flowers April-September
  • Range: Found throughout the UK, especially around the coast
  • Fun Facts: In the Middle Ages, it was known for speeding up wound healing, with vulneraria meaning ‘wound healer’. It was also once used to commonly treat kidney disorders

Wild Thyme (Thymus polytrichus) Wild Thyme

  • Family: Mint
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Low to the ground, forming a mat of non-flowering rooting stems (up to 10cm in height)
  • Stems: Square with erect flowering stems
  • Leaves: Evergreen, short stalked, very small oval 4-8mm leaves in opposite pairs
  • Flowers: Faintly aromatic with pink-purple flowers in round and dense heads. Flowers May-September
  • Range: Widespread in South East England, but scattered distribution elsewhere
  • Fun Facts: Long regarded as the favourite flower of fairies, and associated with love. The Greek thumon though means ‘that which is included in a sacrifice’

Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum)Lady's Bedstraw

  • Family: Madder/Bedstraw
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Short to medium in height, often sprawling (up to 100cm)
  • Stems: Four-angled, almost hairless stems
  • Leaves: Dark green, long, narrow, shiny leaves in whorls of 8-12. Said to smell of new-mown hay
  • Flowers: Bright golden yellow, 2-4mm wide, in clusters, with a sweet honey-like scent. Only Bedstraw species in the UK with yellow flowers. Flowers June-September
  • Range: Widespread
  • Fun Facts: Associated with the story of the Virgin Mary giving birth to the baby Jesus, leading to the belief that a woman lying on a mattress of Lady’s Bedstraw would have a safe and easy childbirth

Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare)Viper's Bugloss

  • Family: Borage/Forget-Me-Not
  • Lifespan: Biennial (flowers in its second year before dying) or perennial
  • Size: Medium to tall in height (up to 100cm)
  • Stems: Roughly hairy and spotted (red-based bristles)
  • Leaves: Narrow, oval-shaped lower leaves
  • Flowers: Flowers in drooping clusters of pink buds that open to become erect, blue, trumpet-shaped, open-mouthed flowers, 10-20mm long, in branched spikes. Flowers May-September
  • Range: Scattered distribution across the UK, being most common in the South
  • Fun Facts: The plant’s name comes from a time when it was believed to be a cure for snake-bites, reinforced by the dead flower-heads resembling a viper’s head

Rough Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus)Rough Hawkbit

  • Family: Daisy
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Short to medium in height (up to 60cm)
  • Stems: Very hairy, unbranched, leafless, and slightly swollen at the top
  • Leaves: Form a rosette of bluntly lobed leaves at the base of the flowering stem
  • Flowers: Golden-yellow, though often orange or reddish beneath, solitary and 20-40mm wide. Forms seed heads that look like dandelion clocks. Flowers late May-October
  • Range: Widespread and fairly abundant across the UK, apart from in the far North
  • Fun Facts: In Greek, Leontodon means ‘Lion’s tooth’, referring to the toothed leaves. The flowers are also rich in nectar and smell sweetly of honey

Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa)Greater Knapweed

  • Family: Daisy
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Medium to tall in height (30-120cm)
  • Stems: Erect and grooved
  • Leaves: Lobed, where the lobes are positioned in pairs either side of the leaf centre. The leaves are 100-250mm long
  • Flowers: Purple, solitary and 30-60mm across. Flowers July-September
  • Range: Scattered across the UK, but predominantly grows in England
  • Fun Facts: Commonly used to treat wounds, bruises, sores and similar conditions

Common Bird’s-Foot-Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)Common Bird's Foot Trefoil

  • Family: Legume
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Short or medium in height and sprawling (up to 50cm)
  • Stems: Solid not hollow, and trailing
  • Leaves: Greyish-green, downy or hairless, and oval-shaped tapering to a point
  • Flowers: Deep yellow or orange, often partly red, and 10-16mm long, often 2-7 per flower head. Flowers May-September
  • Range: Widespread
  • Fun Facts: It has more than 70 common folk names including Eggs and Bacon. The name Bird’s-Foot-Trefoil reflects the resemblance to a bird’s foot, and is a larval food plant of Green Hairstreak and Dingy Skipper Butterflies

Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)Ox Eye Daisy

  • Family: Daisy
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Medium in height (20-75cm)
  • Stems: Round, angled or square, erect, and slightly hairy
  • Leaves: Long-stalked, dark green, spoon-shaped, toothed and in a rosette around the base of the flowering stem
  • Flowers:  White, 20-60mm across, solitary and on sparsely leafy stalks. Flowers May-September
  • Range: Widespread
  • Fun Facts: In past times, an extract was obtained by boiling the plant down, that  was used in salves and medicines to cure a variety of ailments from liver disease to runny eyes. Largest native daisy species

Common Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris)Common Toadflax

  • Family: Plantain
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Short to medium in height (30-80cm)
  • Stems: Erect, grey-green, and hairless
  • Leaves: 30-80mm long, very narrow, untoothed, and spirally arranged up the stems
  • Flowers: 15-35mm long, yellow with an orange bulge and long straight spur, forming stalked spikes. Flowers June-October
  • Range: Widespread
  • Fun Facts: Most common Toadflax species in the UK, getting its name from previously being considered as useless, fit only for toads

Meadow Crane’s-Bill (Geranium pratense)Meadow Cranesbill

  • Family: Geranium
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Size: Medium to tall in height (30-100cm)
  • Stems: Hairy, erect, and often reddish
  • Leaves: Have 5-9 lobes, cut nearly to the base
  • Flowers: Soft violet blue, petals not notched, 15-30mm wide. Flowers June-September
  • Range: Found throughout the UK, but rarer in South West England and East Anglia
  • Fact: With lesser known names such as ‘Jingling Johnny’ or Loving Andrews, it is a horticultural favourite dating back to before the Elizabethan times

Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)Black Medick

  • Family: Legume
  • Lifespan: Annual or short-lived perennial
  • Size: Low in height (up to 60cm), and sprawling or erect
  • Stem: Round or square and hairy
  • Leaves: Trefoil, downy, and 5-20mm in length, with minute teeth
  • Flowers: Bright yellow and small, with 10-50 to one short-stalked rounded head (3-8mm wide). Flowers April-October
  • Range: Widespread across the UK, but sparser in Scotland
  • Facts: Name means ‘plant of the Medes’, referring to an ancient Middle Eastern people, whilst lupulina means ‘hop-like’, due to similarities with Hop Trefoil

 

Now get out there and see what you can find!

 

Drawings and photos all my own