wildlife moment of the month #3

It's a beautiful sunny day today on the south coast of England, and this sunshine has also brought lots of butterflies! Today I have seen many brimstones, peacocks and red admirals; but I was very surprised to see my first blue of the season! This lovely holly blue has been fluttering around my garden all afternoon and it is so wonderful to see! Holly blue butterflies are one of my favourite butterflies, coming just behind the scarce silver-studded blue. The holly blue can be seen throughout England but is most common in the south. This little butterfly has a wingspan of just 35mm but it really is beautiful! I can't wait to see even more blue's on the wing!

butterflies & moths of the summer

It's been a little while since I last blogged! In the last 5 months I have graduated from my degree in Environmental Science and I am now working on a nature reserve on the south coast!
I am absolutely loving working on a nature reserve and this has given me the opportunity to see many species that I have never seen before as well as some old favourites. As we move into autumn I thought it would be nice to share some of the vast variety of different moths & butterflies and that we have on the reserve. Here are a few of my favourite finds from this summer.

 Large skipper Ochlodes sylvanis

Emperor moth catperillar Saturnia pavonia

Bagworm moth caterpillar

Cinnabar caterpillar Tyria jacobaeae

Privet hawk-moth caterpillar Sphinx ligustri

Silver-studded blue Plebejus argus

Brown argus Aricia agestis

Comma Polygonia c-album

Red admiral Vanessa atalanta

Even though summer has come to an end, I am loving autumn and will endeavour to keep you all updated with all species big and small that come my way!

'Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower' - Albert Camus