Ringlet feeding

Great shot what detail and such a pretty butterfly

We have been short on butterflies so far this year, all those Painted Ladies last year and not a one this,...you must have the perfect conditions Ilex.....thanks for sharing...:o)

Thanks both :-)

I think it's because we don't cut the grass - just the paths through it - so we have lots of wildflowers and meadow grasses, which are the foodplants for species like the Ringlet and many others too.... but there are definitely more butterflies in general here this year than ever before.

They did say on one of the programs thats why we are losing our wild life in bees etc as a lot of wild flowers have been distroyed to which they feed off.

Some of the councils are taking note 6d......our local town has had the entrance road sides planted up with poppies and wild flowers....even some of the roundabouts which are usually bedding plants are a mass of grasses and natural flowers........

The garden we had before this one which was on a spanish hillside was full of wild flowers and grasses Ilex, so many species of dragonflies especially in september,.....the light would be golden and the area full of gold dragonflies landing on wild lavender and scabious....just beautiful.....we do miss it...:o((

That Spanish garden sounds quite wonderful Janey!

Good to hear that your council is swapping the dreaded blocks-of-colour for something more natural too, I think then trend is slowly spreading, and hopefully that might start to halt the decline of our insect species.

Along with habitat loss both Dragonflies and Butterflies have been really hammered by the weather over the last two seasons too, so they need all the help they can get....