Hey friends! I’ve been a day behind all week and woke up convinced today was Friday only to discover that not only is it Saturday but also August 3rd (when did that happen!!)

So today I’m (belatedly) posting my first Butterfly tale of 2024!

As over the last couple of months I’ve been raising a little group of one of the prettiest common garden butterflies we get in the UK.

Peacock (Aglais io) are a beautiful red butterfly with giant eye spots (apparently these confuse predators) that seems to be around at all times of the year and is one of our bigger butterflies. The females lay their eggs on common ol’ stinging nettle in May and we have these lovelies to look at about two months later. Something I find amazing is that the females will lay all of their eggs at once which can be up to 500 eggs!!

I love these butterflies, they are quite fast flyers but happy to pose for photos is I’m quiet enough. The winter has been so wet that most butterflies (the the bees) have been delayed, so this year I was thrilled to find a little batch of eggs on some of the purpose grown nettles in the garden and I decided to foster just a small amount of baby caterpillars and moved them into my butterfly house where other potted nettles were waiting.

Anyway, there were 9 of them and these little guys were so small, but grew into these black speckled beauties. Actually photographing caterpillars is quite though as they’re always moving and searching for food!

Its ridiculous how much joy I get out of caring for them.

All 9 of them went on to fully finish the caterpillar stage of their lifecycle and formed funky looking chrysalises in multiple shades of green, it was about a fortnight before they began to colour up ready to emerge. I love it when you can see the wings through the shell as it means I only have to wait another 24 hours to see them.

Just to point out my butterfly raising disclaimer, I’m only rescuing the ones I can identify as eggs as some caterpillars can be tricky to raise or are protected species. If I don’t trust that I can look after them properly and give them the right food plant/proper environment then my plan is always to just leave them alone.

Apparently their favourite foods are buddleias, although I filled their enclosure in my butterfly house with cut flowers and like to add an orange slice (which is always more popular than the flowers!).

My general plan is to always release them three-ish days after they emerge, it something I’m always weirdly emotional about, they’d been in my care for so long from tiny caterpillars, and I actually really missed them!

They have what’s considered to be a nomad instinct which means they are quite widespread in the UK. By caring for, and releasing these lovely ladies (and gents) out into my Wildspace I’m hoping they’ll find their brethren, go off into the countryside and enjoy the summer, then find somewhere to hibernate over winter before laying more eggs next May!

I really hope you enjoyed this little slice of fluttery goodness! I feel super privileged to have been able to raise and protect these chaps. As always thank you so much for reading this post and have a great week!