Summer's Butterflies - 2

Early in the summer we were worrying about reports of the decline in numbers of this lovely butterfly, the Small Tortoiseshell - Diary report here - but their numbers seemed to increase as the summer went on.

Along with the Peacock, they're probably the most recognisable of our big butterflies - and there have been plenty of Peacocks around.  One of the joys of both species is that they love sunbathing, so grabbing a picture is much easier.

As the season drew on towards September, the other big butterfly most of us can identify, the Red Admiral, seemed to be missing from West Ardnamurchan.  Then, to our joy, we saw one resting on some bracken along the Ormsaigbeg roadside - and he was good enough to wait around long enough for a picture to be taken.

If we have problems identifying the many white butterflies that flutter across our fields and hills, we have almost as much trouble with 'brown' species, some of which are remarkably similar.  This is a Meadow Brown, pictured back in June.  Since then, we haven't seen any more.

This is probably our most common butterfly, the Scotch Argus.  While they appear in the croft fields in smaller numbers, there are areas of the peninsula where we have seen clouds of them, particularly in the open plateau and to the north of Camas nan Geall during early August.  Unfortunately, they seem allergic to having their picture taken, so this one is slightly blurred....

....but a less nervous individual sat long enough on a thistle for a better picture to be taken of the glorious colours on the undersides of his wing.

This is supposed to be another common butterfly, the Speckled Wood, but we only saw one throughout the summer, and then at a very unexpected time - just after a force 6 blow in late August, when the sky finally cleared and the sun came out.  He was sitting on a blackberry leaf warming himself.

This isn't a butterfly but a day-flying moth.  However, The Diary was so thrilled with finding a little colony of these beautiful Six-Spot Burnets in a meadow above Ormsaigbeg early in July that it couldn't resist publishing another picture.  A full account is here.

UK Butterflies website is here.