Perching male Large Skipper

 Skippers are amongst my favourite butterflies. They are inquisitive, fast fliers, and males like to perch prominently in their territory, and then allow close approximation. I took a zoomed shot of this male with the macro option, which effectively blurred the background, and shows off the details of the butterfly, including the dark sex brand on the forewings. The following shot, in contrast, captures its surrounding environment, and illustrates how the tall Red Clover allows the male to obtain a broad view of the little meadow in a local wildlife garden where it lives, and to quickly spot and chase rival males. Golden skippers rest with the forewings held well above the hindwings at an angle, instead of resting the forewings over the edge of the hindwings, both on the same plane as in other butterflies. The meadow, with tall grasses, and dotted with Birds Foot trefoil, red clover and geraniums, is a typical habitat for this species.

Darting Small skippers

A grassy area in the little wildlife garden near where I live is managed like a meadow, cut once a year. The grass is long and lush now, peppered with a range of wildfowers. One of the insects that benefits from this arrangement is the Small Skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris. The males of this golden brown, little butterfly dart around the meadow, stopping to feed or sunny themselves occassionally. The larval food plant of this species is Yorkshire Fog, a common rough grass. The adults emerge in mid June and fly in a single generation until August. They like to feed on clovers, bird's foot trefoil, restarrows, knapweeds, thistles, brambles and hawkbits. This is another butterfly species thought to have benefited from recent climate warming in the U.K. It now inhabits most of England and Wales, with its range having moved north about 100 km in the last 25 years.

A male, the same individual as above, resting on Bird's Foot trefoil. Male skippers can be distinguished from females by their "sex-brand", a dark like in the middle of their forewings.