Butterflies

2 small tortoiseshell butterflies on purple buddleia flowers
With all it's different habitats, shrubs, grasses, flowers, stony areas etc you can see many butterflies on this walk.  It can be a bit frustrating in Scotland to wait all year for the butterflies to emerge and then have to wait for a calm and sunny day but we are lucky enough to have many months of chances to see butterflies. 

You can see various different types of butterflies here.  There is a large stony area that has a lot of flowers, brambles etc where they love to sun themselves on the stones.  There are also some buddlehia bushes which they love to feed on.  The buddlehia is beautiful and smells lovely too.

peacock butterfly on purple buddleia flower among stony area

Here are some of the butterfly types that you might be lucky enough to see:

Butterflies
Ringlet Butterfly Orange Tip Butterfly
brown ringlet butterfly on yellow flowers orange tip butterfly on cuckoo flower
There is a while in the year when some of the other butterflies are between cycles but you still see the ringlet butterfly.  It is brown in colour but had very pretty small rings on it's wings. Early in the year the orange tip butterfly appears.  It is often seen, as here, on the cuckoo flower where it lays it's eggs.  The one in this photo is a male with it's orange wing tips.
 Peacock Butterfly  Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly
 peacock butterfly on knapweed flower  small tortoiseshell butterfly on knapweed flower
 The bright and beautiful peacock butterfly can be identified by the amazing eye patterns like the eyes on peacock feathers.  The small tortoiseshell butterfly is quite common on this walk.  It has a lovely orange colour with bits of blue round the edges of it's wings.
 Small Copper Butterfly  Painted Lady Butterfly
small copper butterfly on white flower   painted lady butterfly on leaves
 The small copper butterfly is much smaller than the other butterflies seen on this walk.  It can be seen on the stony areas and sometimes on the dry path. Occasionally I am lucky enough to see a painted lady butterfly. 
 Comma Butterfly  Red Admiral Butterfly
 comma butterfly on yellow flowers  red admiral butterfly with green scene around
The comma butterfly has amazing curve shapes to the edges of it's wings.  I have only been lucky enough to see one a couple of times over the years.
  The red admiral is actually a black butterfly with orange and white stripes on the wings.
 Frittilary Butterfly  
 fritillary butterfly on path  
 Very occasionally I am lucky enough to see a fritillary butterfly on this walk.  


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