It's been another very bad year for butterfly watchers - even if we do start to see more continental types establishing themselves in England, one would expect that the same factors causing such a decline here will affect them also
Here's a Speckled Wood photographed just now - a country butterfly (ours is a rural spot) by no means scarce as a rule. These are probably the easiest of all to photograph: they show no fear of man, returning to the same favourite spot no matter how often disturbed. This they fiercely defend against all others of their species who wander into their territory - normally a woodland glade - and the two will spiral upwards in a dance-like combat, a common sight in the forests