Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta
A little bit of sunshine after a few wet days here in South Wales brought some beauty into the vegetable patch the other day. This is the first time I can remember seeing a Red Admiral so late in the year, and I photographed this one feeding on one of the last plums left on the tree. The day before I also saw a speckled wood. 2013 has been a good year for butterflies, certainly better than the washout last year. I have certainly seen more butterflies this year, though that may be because Ive been looking! The results from the Big Butterfly Count (1) this year showed a general increase in almost all the species. The red Admiral came in number 11 in the list with a 69% increase compared to the count in 2012. Species Grand total % change from 2012 1 Small White 154438 312 2 Large White 136944 335 3 Peacock 130796 3537 4 Meadow Brown 88547 -33 5 Gatekeeper 76935 15 ...