skippers..

Two warm days!

Yesterday small skippers had emerged and they raced across our small meadow, as if joyous.

The red antennae-tips of small skipper

Today, pugnacious males are establishing territories and choosing vantage points like this birds-foot trefoil from which they can spot passing females and chase away insurgent males.

The Small Skipper almost exclusively uses Yorkshire-fog grass (Holcus lanatus), although several other grasses have been recorded as foodplants.

We also have the almost-identical Essex skipper here (black antennae tips rather than the red of small skipper). It is much less fussy. Its’ primary larval foodplant is Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata). Common Couch (Elytrigia repens), Creeping Soft-grass (Holcus mollis), False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), Timothy (Phleum pratense) and Tor-grass (Brachypodium rupestre) are also used.

(Source Butterfly Conservation).

Essex skippers arrive later than their red-tipped antennae cousins.

Locally there’s dingy skipper and also pretty little grizzled skipper. No garden records of these yet - but we live in hope!