Thanks for the confirmation David. I thought it was due to the prominent orange spots on both the fore and hindwings, but I decided to check because I have seen on this forum just how easy it can be to confuse some lycaenid species.

Is this a brown argus please? http://www.challoner.com/temp/argus.jpg It was taken at Stansted airport in Essex, on an expanse of grassland that is regularly cut, and has some wildflowers. Unfortunately the quality of the photo is quite poor - it was a quite a distance away and only settled for a ve...

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The blossom makes a wonderful backdrop for that colourful selection of species Mikhail. Great shots.

I saw a red admiral in a field immediately west of Heathrow airport yesterday. Like others, I've hardly seen any this autumn.

That's a lovely wall brown photograph Ian.

Thanks bugboy

I photographed this butterfly on a very hot day in July at RAF Marham in Norfolk (so plenty of open grassland, as is usual for airfields of course). From the wing underside markings I think it's a small heath. Am I correct please? small_heath.jpg I presume from the size and shape of the abdomen, tha...

Those clouded yellows are lovely. Makes me slightly more hopeful that I may see one in my NE London garden at some point! What I did see today for the first time was a Jersey tiger moth. I actually saw two, but only managed a photo of the rather worn example below. The other looked very fresh, and a...

A painted lady appears to have taken up residence in my north-east London garden, taking advantage of the bank of buddlejas and other insect-friendly plants I've planted over the past few years. Every time I've gone outside over the past few days it has either been nectaring or basking or in the sun...

GIMP is a excellent alternative to Photoshop. Being open source, it is free: https://www.gimp.org I use it and Paint Shop Pro under Windows, but it is also available for OS X and works with any recent version, so you should have no problems with running it under High Sierra. Worth a try given that i...

Seen this afternoon near the southern end of Epping Forest were two meadow brown, one ringlet, two comma and a holly blue. Not rare of course, but lovely to see while out exploring on our bikes.

I've just seen a fritillary in my garden for the first time. It didn't stay long and it didn't settle, so no chance of positively identifying it. It was a larger fritillary with deep orange uppersides and a black speckled pattern. I have seen silver-washed fritillaries in Devon, and this one didn't ...

I saw plenty of Essex skippers on Wanstead Flats, north-east London on Saturday 17/06. They were very active in an area of long grass and wild flowers. Thanks to peterc for confirming the id over in the Identification section. A couple of heavily cropped shots (one showing the black undersides to th...

Thanks for the confirmation Peter

I have what I know to be a common question: I saw some skippers today, and are they small or Essex? They're the first skippers I've knowingly seen. They were in Wanstead Flats in north-east London, flying among long grass and wildflowers. I took some photos of the only one that sat still for a while...

Plenty of brimstones joining in with the flying activity at the Army Air Corps airfield at Middle Wallop, Hampshire today.

What a lovely butterfly the southern festoon is. Great photo too.

I saw my first butterfly of the year here in north-east London today - a glorious male brimstone.

Beautiful swallowtail photos. I can't help with the flower identification, but the aircraft are are indeed operated by the Spanish Air Force; they are CASA C101 Aviojets of the Patrulla Águila (Spanish equivalent of the Red Arrows). No doubt they are busy this time of year working up and practising ...