Butterflies of Chalkland/grassland in East Yorkshire

Wonderful photos and great information, SBG.

Amazing photos. Enjoyed them all.

Thank you for all the info and the beautiful pics, so useful to have them all in one blog. I'll refer back to them as they're in my favourites now. The clustered bell flower brings back memories of never ending battles against total takeover in my garden years ago in wiltshire. Still a lovely flower though.

Brilliant photos Eileen, and sounds like a lovely day out. It’s great for us to have so many IDs … added to favourites for future reference!

Ditto that. I have not seen that many butterflies in my garden this year. The Buddleia is now flowering but I have only seen one Red Admiral & one Peacock so far. Holly blues show up early in the year, & the odd Brimstone.
Great photos, I like the Broomrape & the woolly thistle.

Is it ok to harvest the seeds from the Sisyrinchium now? They are beginning to turn black.

Fab blog and very informative as usual, Eileen! Beautiful captures too. That woolly thistle is unusually attractive! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for all the compliments. I have so many blurred images probably 30 duff photos for 1 good one. We go to this Yorkshire Wildlife trust reserve every 2 weeks for the butterfly transect. And every 3 weeks for the other YWT reserve.

yes feverfew if the seeds are black they are ready for harvesting.

Stunning photos Seaburn, thankyou for sharing and for the info.

Interesting to see the butterflies that like chalkland vegetation. It must be a lovely experience going out to see them :)

what is beautiful is to see how the plants/grasses change in just a few weeks. Back in April there was very little to see but we have had cowslips, umbellefers and buttercups give way to orchids thyme and knapweeds, geraniums and scabious. There are at least 27 species of grass too.

Excellent photos, very interesting blog.

I see you have skippers in your garden too. They only showed up in my garden a couple years ago.

Great to read about, & see photos of, these lovely butterflies!

I have mostly seen only Large Cabbage Whites on the balcony so far this year - well as I've planted lots of climbing Nasturtiums is was to be expected! 😂

All these photos were taken at the Nature reserves Bathgate. Not spotted any skippers in the garden sadly. Doesn't mean we don't get them though. I seem to remember there are 4 UK species. They are thought to be the evolutionary link between butterflies and moths according to my daughter.

The large and small whites are often the same size so you may have had them both Balcony. It depends on how much the black extends down the wings. I do get both in the garden and the green veined whites too. Mine are loving my nasturtiums too :o) and my cabbages :o(

We did spot 3 holly blues males 'dancing' together. They are 'fighting over a female'. She was having a nonchalant feed n the water mint.