02 May 2014

Unusual visitor to the garden...


I spotted this butterfly in the garden early this morning.  I went inside to grab the camera thinking he'd probably fly away before I returned, but he was still there.

Maybe he'd just emerged and was still half-asleep, because he allowed me to get very close and to even snap off the leaf on which he was sitting, so I could get a better shot.

Click on the photos for larger images....







I've never seen a butterfly like this before in my life, and so I thought it must be quite rare.  However, according to authoritative references on the web, it's a male 'Orange Tip' and they're quite common & widespread throughout the UK....

3 comments:

  1. I've seen these guys from the top often enough, but never observed that fabulous marbling of the underside!

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  2. Hi. From the pictures I looked at on the internet, I think this marbling is usually black and so, as I said, maybe this had one just hatched out. Apparently the females are all white and so maybe I've seen plenty of them in the garden before and just not realised what they were...

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  3. @ermine - BTW, loved your recent post about the guy on £120k a year who couldn't afford to go out for Sunday lunch ! I didn't comment simply because I didn't have anything fresh to add after your first post on the trials and tribulations of the middle classes...

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