The Nature Blog

photo credit: Benimoto

Whilst I love to see butterflies, I am far from an expert and so regularly find myself leafing through books and websites to learn more about a species I have seen recently.

During my research I have come across a number of useful online resources for identifying British butterflies and their caterpillars and thought that it might be useful for other readers to gather the best resources into one place.

Possibly the best place to start your identification journey is with a visit to Butterfly Conservation’s UK Butterflies site which has neatly categorized all of the UK butterfly species, with clear photos of each making identification reasonably easy for most species.

As well as the photos, this site also groups butterflies by type, helping to narrow down your search and also has a handy “Flying This Week” chart on the left-hand side of the page which is a great place to start your hunt.

Butterfly Conservation’s main website also has some very useful resources including a complete A to Z listing of UK butterflies and a special “butterfly identifier” where you can select options from a form which will then offer up possible identifications.

Also worth mentioning is UK Leps which has lots of nice photos and information but unfortunately there is no overview feature. Because of this, UK Leps is probably not so useful for identification when compared to the two Butterfly Conservation websites but once you have worked out what your butterfly is, the site provides plenty more useful information on the species.

Whilst the flying adult butterflies are often the most visible form, it is of course not unusual to find caterpillars and these can potentially be even more problematic to identify.

What’s That Caterpillar is a great resource for identification of British caterpillars. To make your identification a little easier, try to identify the actual plant that you find the caterpillar on and then use one of the various lists of larval food plants to narrow down the options.

Some of the best lists of larval food plants I have found are Foremost Butterflies and Over The Garden Gate.

Lastly, if you have some top identification websites that you use for lepidoptera, please leave me a comment so we can all benefit from your knowledge

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photo credit: ahisgett

In spring and summer a visit to a sunny opening near a ancient hedgerow or in a forest will often reveal large numbers of this elegant butterfly who can be so active as to make identification quite a challenge.

Appearance

The general appearance of the Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) butterfly is one of a brown butterfly of average size, covered in a number of spots which may range in colour from pale cream through to a yellow-orange. Closer inspection reveals a far more delicate-looking butterfly with attractive markings and gentle “scalloping” of the posterior wings.

Habitat

This butterfly is most often found, as the name suggests, around the margins and openings of woods and hedgerows where it is often a very active flyer, only settling to rest occasionally.

Food

The caterpillars feed on a variety of grasses most notably couch grass.

Interesting Facts

Whilst this butterfly is often seen reasonably early in the season from April onwards, it does not overwinter as an adult butterfly typically but is far more likely to see out the colder months either as a large caterpillar or as a pupae, ready to hatch in the spring as the weather warms up.

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• Most perfect morning today. After a wet weekend today is bright and sunny with a perfect cloudless blue sky. Just stunning! #
• Anyone got plans for National Moth Night on 15th of May? #
• RT @nature_org: Google gets wind in its sails, will invest $38.8 mil. in North Dakota wind farm: http://tcrn.ch/ccO7PY #

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One of the perennial problems at this time of year is figuring out whether that bird that just flew overhead at the speed of light was a swallow, a swift or a house martin.

But fortunately while these birds are all superficially similar, there are a range of differences between them that can make telling these three bird species apart reasonably simple once you know what to look for.

Swallows

photo credit: fauxto_digit

Swallows are most easily identified by their red chin and the longer feathers on either side of the tail which stick out like streamers and make them easy to spot in flight.

Swifts

photo credit: Michael Woodruff

Swifts are one of those amazing birds which barely ever come to ground to rest except to nest spending virtually their whole life on the wing. High pitched screeching and curved, sickle-shaped wings together with a short tail help to identify this species who can often be seen in warm summer days performing acrobatics in the sky as they hunt for their insect prey.

House Martins

photo credit: Generalnoir

The house martin is probably the smallest of these three species and has a gently curved tail, unlike the squarer tail of the swift or the “streamers” of the swallow. They are most easily identified, however, by their white rump which can often be clearly seen even from some distance as these birds fly past.

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Ah, one of those classic British place-names to put a smile on the face! I recently took a stroll to Faulking Hill in East Sussex to take a look at the scenes and wildlife on the chalk downloads found there.

Whilst the sun was out, the wild was howling across the open hillsides and so while there were some amazing views, wildlife was few and far between. Up on the exposed hillside there is little plant cover at all so while crows and magpies were seen on every hillside, there wasn’t a huge amount to see.

Fortunately later in my walk I wondered through a farm which *did* have far more plant cover and it was at that point that I started to see quite a bit of wildlife.

Firstly a fox cub appeared no more than 15-20 feet away from me, and much to my surprise as I scrambled for my camera, didn’t seem overly worried by me. Whether he was used to seeing farm workers or was desperate for food I’m not sure but he stayed around long enough for me to get a few photos of him. What a beautiful creature.

However the guinea fowl in the next field along didn’t seem to pleased to see him as they squawked non-stop at the top of their lungs!

Secondly I was lucky enough to see a young house mouse dashing along the side of a farm building and he stopped long enough for me to creep up and get a few snaps of him in the grass by the wall.

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Taking a visit to the Natural History Museum in London recently I must admit to being rather underwhelmed. The museum seems to be doing it’s best to attract children and encourage interaction with all sorts of “displays” but unfortunately for a naturalist like me I felt it was too far removed from what I really want from a natural history museum.

Fortunately a visit to Oxford Natural History Museum was far more what I was looking for. The beautiful Gothic architecture, and one of the most fascinating arrays of preserved specimens I have seen in a long time made for a fantastic day out.

I was particularly taken with the insect collections up on the mezzanine floor where hundreds of preserved butterflies, beetles and (one of my personal favourites) mantids were neatly and clearly displayed providing me with hours of pleasure (and hundreds of photos!).

If you’ve never visited the museum in Oxford then I would strongly recommend a visit whenever you get a chance – just avoid the school holidays for your own sake

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