Two Butterflies in Garden

It might actually be the same hardworking Small Tortoiseshell, who, according to my "Butterflies of the Highlands" can "be seen in any month of the year in almost any habitat". Well I thinkshe gives a great deal of class to the phrase, "common ordinary, garden variety."

Perhaps you are old enough to remember the toll that DDT took on butterflies. There was a time in my life when there were butterflies--lots of them--and then there were not. After DDT was banned, they were back again. That small taster of life without butterflies was enough to commit me to doing my little bit to make the world a place where butterflies could survive--if not flourish, so naturally when the countryside rangers up here asked for help to encourage butterflies (and bumblebees), I was tagging along trying to learn.

So for those of you with a fondness for butterflies or a more sophisticated knowledge of the economics of ecology, here's a wee contribution from my corner of the world and an invitation to look after the butterflies and the bumblebees where you are now.