White Admirals and Essex Skippers

White Admiral, Limenitis camilla

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On Tuesday I conducted my Mill Hill butterfly transect: Gatekeeper 38, Large White, Marbled White 16, Meadow Brown 17, Painted Lady, Small Heath 4, moths: Six-spot Burnet, Yellow Shell, Garden Grass-veneer, Cinnabar larvae, Straw-barred Pearl.  I then visited Woods Mill reserve where I found Gatekeepers, Silver-washed Fritillaries (a male plus a female laying on a birch trunk), a Dingy Dowdy moth, Comma, Essex skippers mating in a meadow, small Skippers, a Large Skipper, Common Nettle-tap, two White Admirals fighting , Meadow Browns, Beautiful Demoiselles and a Spotted Longhorn Beetle.

Mill Hill:

Centaury, Centaurium erythraea

Cinnabar larva, Tyria jacobaeae

Field Scabius, Knautia arvensis

Garden Grass-veneer, Chrysoteuchia culmella

Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus

Harlequin ladybird, pupa, Harmonia axyridis

Marsh Thistle, Cirsium palustre

Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui

Red Soldier beetle, Rhagonycha fulva

Satyr Pug, Eupithecia satyrata

Six-Spot Burnet, Zygaena filipendulae

Straw-barred Pearl, Pyrausta despicata

Wild Marjoram, Origanum vulgare

Yellow Shell, Camptogramma bilineata

Woods Mill:

Beautiful Demoiselle, female, Calopteryx virgo

Comma, Polygonia c-album

Common Froghopper, Philaenus spumarius

Common Green Capsid, Lygocoris pabulinus

Common Nettle-tap, Anthophila fabriciana

Dingy Dowd, Blastobasis adustella

Dotted Loosestrife, Lysimachia punctata

Essex Skippers mating, Thymelicus lineola

Honeysuckle, Lonicera caprifolium

male Large Skipper, Ochlodes sylvanus

Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina

Meadow Vetchling, Lathyrus pratensis

Mute Swans and cygnets, Cygnus olor

Purple Toadflax, Linaria purpurea

Red Soldier beetles mating, Rhagonycha fulva

Silver-washed Fritillary, female, Argynnis paphia

Silver-washed Fritillary, male, Argynnis paphia

Small Skipper, male, Thymelicus sylvestris

Spotted Longhorn Beetle, Rutpela maculata

Thick-headed Fly, Sicus ferrugineus

White Admiral, Limenitis camilla

The White admiral spent some time high up checking his territory then occasionally came down to nectar on the brambles. A second one came into his territory  several times and dogfights ensued.

White Admiral

White-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lucorum