Orange tip butterfly, male
Early flowers – lady’s smock
April is when the butterflies start taking to the wing. This one is an orange tip – the males have the orange tips – and they are real heralds of spring. They are first seen about the time the cuckoo flower or lady’s smock appears – another early spring flower in the fields. Right now they are fluttering across Popehouse Moor and Lower Newland Moor (the turbine field). On Popehouse Moor we’ve been finishing up some work on a ‘butterfly friendly clearing’ recently, but that’s more for the speckled woods and hopefully fritillaries.