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Description

A Comma Butterfly had been patrolling around the rear of my house since the 1st of July. It first appeared to be a large orange and black butterfly, most likely a Small Tortoiseshell. However, there was something a bit different about this fella. It flew strongly, a bit mechanically, but in a more determined manner than a Small Tortoiseshell's meandering wind blown and scattered flight. Also unusual was its territorial obsession verging on the aggressive ... I watched it chasing away a dragonfly!
It reappeared in my back yard on the 8th of July to bask on the weeds that pass for an attempt at horticulture. This time it basked in the sunshine on a hot sunny day with warm windy Mediterranean weather. It was clearly a Comma Butterfly with its ragged wing edges, but it didn't hang around to be interviewed by my camera.

Today it visited again, also declining interview, but luckily it re-visited again at 4:30 pm, landing just beyond my back yard fence.
Finally I was able to photograph a Butterfly that I have not seen in Ireland since July 2005! Back then Commas were not a resident Irish Butterfly specie, and so a sighting like this was a rare event. Dublin Naturalists Field Club only recorded a single other sighting in 2005, in Waterford ... apparently.
Since then times have changed for Comma Butterflies, and the climate which now makes Ireland a viable home for them.
A January 2024 review of Ireland's 2023 Butterfly records submitted to National Biodiversity Data Centre notes the following:

"The recording effort shows that continued north and westerly expansion in the range of Comma (Polygonia C-album) in Ireland. Comma is now the seventh most commonly recorded butterfly, which is remarkable given that it was first recorded only in 2000 in Co. Wexford. It is now commonly seen in Dublin and Co. Meath, and has extended its range to Counties Longford, Galway, Clare and Limerick. A small isolated population now occurs in Killarney National Park in Co. Kerry."

Today there was mild cloudy sunshine, becoming hot under direct sunshine without any breeze. Beneath me, my backyard, and the resting Comma Butterfly lay a canyon of stinging nettles. These have occupied the abandoned leat of Kilmainham Mill which has now been neglected into an urban mini-wilderness. The Comma has made this its domain and now patrols over a flowing canopy of stinging nettles in much the same way that an Eagle might soar over a jungle canopy. From below the astringent smell of nettle oil fills the air, excreted under the hot sunshine by this micro-jungle ecosystem.

Hot sunny weather prevailed from the 25th May to the 5th of June. This calmed down to become warm cloudy sunshine from the 6th-11th June, then hot sunshine returned until 28th June but with humid and heavy rain showers, then it was back to mild cloudy sunshine & rain showers again. Heavy thunder and hail showers 20th & 25th June, and 3rd of July.

Photograph by Robert Moss, 4:32 pm Thursday 13th of July 2023.

Description

A Comma Butterfly had been patrolling around the rear of my house since the 1st of July. It first appeared to be a large orange and black butterfly, most likely a Small Tortoiseshell. However, there was something a bit different about this fella. It flew strongly, a bit mechanically, but in a more determined manner than a Small Tortoiseshell's meandering wind blown and scattered flight. Also unusual was its territorial obsession verging on the aggressive ... I watched it chasing away a dragonfly!
It reappeared in my back yard on the 8th of July to bask on the weeds that pass for an attempt at horticulture. This time it basked in the sunshine on a hot sunny day with warm windy Mediterranean weather. It was clearly a Comma Butterfly with its ragged wing edges, but it didn't hang around to be interviewed by my camera.

Today it visited again, also declining interview, but luckily it re-visited again at 4:30 pm, landing just beyond my back yard fence.
Finally I was able to photograph a Butterfly that I have not seen in Ireland since July 2005! Back then Commas were not a resident Irish Butterfly specie, and so a sighting like this was a rare event. Dublin Naturalists Field Club only recorded a single other sighting in 2005, in Waterford ... apparently.
Since then times have changed for Comma Butterflies, and the climate which now makes Ireland a viable home for them.
A January 2024 review of Ireland's 2023 Butterfly records submitted to National Biodiversity Data Centre notes the following:

"The recording effort shows that continued north and westerly expansion in the range of Comma (Polygonia C-album) in Ireland. Comma is now the seventh most commonly recorded butterfly, which is remarkable given that it was first recorded only in 2000 in Co. Wexford. It is now commonly seen in Dublin and Co. Meath, and has extended its range to Counties Longford, Galway, Clare and Limerick. A small isolated population now occurs in Killarney National Park in Co. Kerry."

Today there was mild cloudy sunshine, becoming hot under direct sunshine without any breeze. Beneath me, my backyard, and the resting Comma Butterfly lay a canyon of stinging nettles. These have occupied the abandoned leat of Kilmainham Mill which has now been neglected into an urban mini-wilderness. The Comma has made this its domain and now patrols over a flowing canopy of stinging nettles in much the same way that an Eagle might soar over a jungle canopy. From below the astringent smell of nettle oil fills the air, excreted under the hot sunshine by this micro-jungle ecosystem.

Hot sunny weather prevailed from the 25th May to the 5th of June. This calmed down to become warm cloudy sunshine from the 6th-11th June, then hot sunshine returned until 28th June but with humid and heavy rain showers, then it was back to mild cloudy sunshine & rain showers again. Heavy thunder and hail showers 20th & 25th June, and 3rd of July.

Photograph by Robert Moss, 4:32 pm Thursday 13th of July 2023.