I have seen in the recent days Holly Blue, Comma, and Speckled Wood. They are often in that corner where I have now 4 bug hotels and each of them has got a butterfly place too.
I've seen any number of holly blues this year in my neighbourhood (not much else). I can't let if they are maybe having a good year or I've just got my insect goggles on.
@Fire If it's anything like the absolute population explosion I've seen here in Notts, I'd say the former! I only used to see them occasionally in my back garden with the typical high flight and almost never settling. Now they're a very common sight in both front and back, feeding mostly on Eupatorium cannabinum and sunning themselves, which they rarely seemed to do before.
The above link says that Holly Blue is quite promiscuous in food stuffs, like the whites, which would make it much more adaptable than some butterflies that are attached to one plant. It likes bramble, spindle, holly, ivy, heather and gorse, among others, which will stand it in good stead. I didn't realise that some butterflies will feed on rotting fruit and "carrion juices". Yum. Just goes to show. Something or another.
I think it's Commas that will drink the juices of fermented fruit until intoxicated, that put some funny images in my head! I imagined other Commas discouraging one that had gone too far: "I think you've had enough today, mate!"
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They are often in that corner where I have now 4 bug hotels and each of them has got a butterfly place too.
I ♥ my garden.
I ♥ my garden.
It’s the first year that I see them in the garden, but never had the camera with me.
I ♥ my garden.