Aflutter: Guardian readers share UK butterfly sightings – in pictures

Silver-studded blue

‘I go out photographing butterflies each year,’ says Thomas Moore, a primary school teacher from West Sussex. ‘As lockdown has been partially relaxed to allow you to drive to a place for a walk, it has meant I could go to some of the great spots in the South Downs to see them. It is very early for the silver-studded blues but, given the very warm weather, I convinced my wife to get up early and head to the heathland to have a look. There were a few flitting around and luckily a couple perched long enough for me to get some photos.’
Peacock

‘This peacock butterfly hitched a ride on my hat for about half a mile – long enough to explain to my wife how to use our new camera,’ says Erik Brown, an ‘almost-retired journalist with lockdown hair’ in Tunbridge Wells.
Pearl-bordered fritillary

‘This photo was taken at Hembury Woods, where this species is numerous due to an abundance of violets, bugle and other nectar sources,’ says Thomas Pinches, a ranger at Slapton Ley national nature reserve. ‘It was out earlier than usual this year due to the sunny weather. I first saw them in late April and they are supposed to be a May or June flyer. The continuing warm weather means they are thriving, which is great as they are fairly scarce. Butterflies and insects have really responded well to a reduction in mowing as a result of lockdown.’
Duke of Burgundy

‘The species is scarce,’ says butterfly expert Dan Oates, who took this photo in Denge wood, Kent.
Peacock

‘I saw this peacock very early – in February 2020 – in our garden in Ipswich,’ says Harriet Jondorf. ‘I was amazed. It was such a bright thing to see in the garden at that time of year. When it landed, I could see how new and bright it was; it must have been newly emerged. We are trying to create a very wildlife-friendly garden and have seen newts, a frog, stag beetles and many other butterflies – comma, orange-tip, brimstone, cabbage white and small blue ones.’
Painted lady

‘Feeding the butterflies in our garden in Cambridge was definitely a lockdown highlight – feeding a painted lady was a biology lesson lockdown-style for three excited daughters,’ says Rob Hill, who has been home schooling his children during the pandemic.
Male orange-tip

This photograph was taken by Christopher Cox, a 74-year-old retired biomedical scientist, during one of his lockdown walks in Keyingham, East Riding of Yorkshire.
Peacock

‘The visit of a peacock butterfly gave my husband, Ian, and me some cheer and a topic of conversation, when not much else was happening in our lives during lockdown,’ says Alexis Powell, who took this photo in her garden in East Kilbride. ‘I have been a full-time carer for my husband for the last two years. His Alzheimer’s has deteriorated during lockdown as our world has shrunk. Ian was a keen amateur photographer and often asks me to take a photo when he sees something of interest. He doesn’t really understand the mobile phone but he does recognise it takes snaps.’
Dingy skipper

Colin Gibbs, who volunteers for Butterfly Conservation in his spare time, took this photograph earlier this month in Hargate Forest, near Tunbridge Wells.
Male orange-tip

‘Over the years it has fallen into disrepair,’ says Ian Records of Skolie Burn meadow, where this photo of a male orange-tip was taken in late April. ‘But it is being restored to its former glory by locals and students from Edinburgh college. We are currently trying to raise funds to purchase part of the meadow to protect it for the community and future generations to enjoy. Ninety-seven per cent of meadow habitat has been lost since the second world war and Skolie Burn is one of the last lowland flower-rich meadow in West Lothian.’
Duke of Burgundy

‘I’ve been monitoring this species for the last 20 years as part of a group of volunteers who are trying to conserve this rare butterfly,’ says Dave O’Brien, who took this photo in late May near Pickering in North Yorkshire. ‘Every year we try to visit each site in Yorkshire where it is found to see how well it is doing, and assess whether any habitat management work is necessary. The lockdown restrictions eased just in time this year to allow us to see it.’
Holly blue?

Jeff Tupholme moved from London to Salisbury a few years ago and loves ‘being in the countryside every day with my dog’. He captured this photo of a holly blue – ‘I think, but I’m no expert’ – in Wiltshire.
Peacock

‘This peacock butterfly was resting on the garden steps,’ says Maria Harris, who took this photo at her home in south Norfolk. ‘There seem to have been a great many more butterflies in the garden this year, especially holly blues – although, sadly, there have been fewer bees than normal.’
Speckled wood

Chris Pickard, a full-time carer for his wife, spotted this butterfly at Daneshill Lakes in Nottinghamshire. ‘We still get to nature reserves with her electric wheelchair,’ he says .
Tortoiseshell and peacock

‘Tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies flagrantly ignoring social-distancing rules. It’s 2 METRES APART, guys! Even for the insect elite,’ says Sean Garvey, a ’50-something nature-lover’, who spotted these two in York.
Female orange-tip

‘Female orange-tip butterflies lack the orange tips, but the green veining on the underwing is pretty special,’ says James Bray, an ecologist in Lancashire. ‘This one was drinking nectar from an allium flower in our Lancashire garden at the beginning of May.’
Painted lady

This photo of a newly hatched painted lady was taken by Lilly Felton, a nine-year-old from Iver, a village in Buckinghamshire. She has been ‘bunking off home schooling with Dad, watching tadpoles in the park and online ospreys on the nest’.
Peacock

‘I rescued this peacock butterfly from a spider web in the garden. I wouldn’t normally interfere in nature but couldn’t leave it to its fate,’ says Steve Aylward, 59, who recently moved house, and is ‘currently in the process of “wilding” the garden to create space for nature’ in Suffolk.
Female speckled wood

‘Sitting pretty,’ says Claire Rowcroft, who took this photo last week in Bin wood, Surrey. ‘I get out in the countryside daily with my eight-month-old daughter. We love spotting wildlife. Seeing this beautiful butterfly really lifted my spirit.’
Cinnabar moth

‘This little guy has been visiting our garden regularly,’ says Kirstine Nicholson, who lives in Milton Keynes. ‘I have never seen a butterfly like this. It is so bright and beautiful. According to the internet it is a cinnabar moth and is fairly common, but we have never had one visit the garden before so my eight-year-old daughter and I are very excited every time it comes to visit.’
Eyed hawkmoth

‘We are fortunate to have an entomologist as one of the plot-holders on our site,’ says Maggie Sully, who took this photo on her allotment in north London in early May. ‘When his partner found a large chrysalis in the earth while weeding, the entomologist hatched it out in a jar and then released it onto the bark of an old apple tree, its preferred habitat and source for food. The entomologist gently revealed the moth’s underwing with its brightly coloured eye marking for the photo. There are 2,500 species of moths in Britain but many have declined over the last 40 years.’