Wall butterflies

It hasn't been a good year for butterflies here in North East England, so it was a delight to see several of these wall butterflies along the bank of the river Tyne downstream from Corbridge on Saturday ......

... either feeding on creeping thistle flowers or .....

... sunning themselves on the damp, sandy soil beside the river. The beautifully mottled underwing pattern, with the rows of 'eye' markings,  makes them quite difficult to spot against the sandy background, especially when they align themselves with the sun's rays so that they cast very little shadow .. but .....

 ... when they open those wings their pattern is very striking.

 It's remarkable how aggressive these butterflies are, with males defending their territories against all-comers with ferocious aerial dogfights, chasing each other in tight circles, even sometimes clashing wings.

The wall seems to be one of the species that is much less common in our region than it was thirty years ago, but this seems to be a very healthy population.