It was during an enforced spell of rest due to back trouble that I (Paul) spent more time sitting & walking and exercising about our garden during late Summer 2000. It was then that we began to notice how many different Butterflies there seemed to be. Not being gardeners as such, it seems lucky that by accident, what flowers we had, appeared to be good for our fluttery friends and so we began to count the number of different types that were visiting us and I began to photograph them. Here then is our listing of the Butterflies we have seen and identified so far, along with photographs of nearly all of them. I am endeavouring to photograph all the different Butterflies that visit either our Garden or the shrub filled bank (called a 'Bund') behind it which shields us from an industrial estate. As time progresses we shall also add a page on Butterflies that haven't visited our garden/bank but are found in the UK and seen by us whilst on our various holidays.
We can now say 23 confirmed species of Butterflies (not counting the different sexes) seen in either our garden or the bund (bank) at the back since we started watching them in 2000. Looks like we must be doing something right without even trying!! We wonder what other Butterflies might venture into the garden during the coming months & years...
Our ‘Summer’ hobby also played a part in our enjoyable trips to COAA in the Algarve so check out our page on the Algarve Butterflies we saw - some of which were new to us and some which were 'old' friends!