Butterflies

Now that the weather has actually decided to be sunny and warm again after lots of rain, the teddy bears have been able to go back out into the garden at last.

There are always lots of birds in the garden, and today the bears noticed that there are lots of butterflies too. They haven't seen many before because butterflies like it to be really hot before they will come out and fly around.

There are many different types of butterflies, all with different colouring. Apparently, each type likes specific plants and flowers, so you should be able to find them more easily wherever those plants and flowers grow.

Tommy and Custard liked the pretty colours of the butterflies and carefully crept up to them when they were resting on flowers or stones so that they could look at them in more detail. But every time they got close enough to see them clearly, the butterflies would fly away again! Tommy and Custard weren't very happy about that!

Their friend, WalkerBear, who was visiting that day, suggested that perhaps he could take some photographs of the butterflies for them instead, and, as he could use the zoom on his camera, it meant that he didn't have to get too close to them and scare them off. Tommy and Custard thought that was a brilliant idea!!

So WalkerBear ran off to get his camera, which he had luckily brought with him. Back in the garden, he very carefully and quietly moved closer to the butterflies and took some lovely photographs. Tommy and Custard could look at them for as long as they wanted on the camera screen, and zoom in to see all the detail. They decided that their favourite was the Red Admiral butterfly because he looked like he was made of velvet.

They managed to find 6 different butterflies in their garden in just over an hour - Bubbles looked them all up in his butterfly book and has put their names against their photos here, as well as the names of the plants they were found on.

It would seem that the best plant to grow in your garden if you want to see lots of butterflies is the buddleia. There is a buddleia bush just over the fence in their next door neighbour's garden and WalkerBear had to hang precariously over the fence to take these photos. So the bears are thinking that they really need to plant one of their own, ready for next year's butterflies.

The Red Admiral is very striking and really easy to spot being mostly black but with broad red stripes on its wings.

The Small Tortoiseshell has bright blue spots on the edges of its wings.

The patterns on the Peacock butterfly's wings reminded the bears of the tail feathers of a peacock - that must be where it got its name from!

Although the Gatekeeper butterfly looked quite a plain brown from a distance, when the bears looked more closely they could see that it had really prettily patterned wings.

The Cabbage White butterfly isn't well-loved by gardeners because it will eat all their cabbages!

The Painted Lady looked like an artist had actually painted all over her wings. How apt were all the butterfly names?

Look for butterflies in your garden too, or when you are out walking in the woods or in the park - and try to identify them from these photos. Good luck!

To see a video giving more details about these and other British butterflies, click here.