Red Admiral on a November morning

Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 5 Nov 2017

We found this butterfly warming itself among the November leaf-litter. Shade temperature at the time (10.32 am) was only about 8C, and the butterfly did not move when I approached more closely. What is clear is that this is a fresh individual, showing none of the wear and tear that a butterfly sustains in the course of a few weeks on the wing. Could it in fact be a newly emerged individual, just out of the chrysalis? I don't know enough about the creature's life-cycle to be able to say. Seconds later I took a closer photo - but one which shows less of the autumnal context: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5594044 As I suggest in the caption to that photo, this butterfly was - in all likelihood - about to migrate south. Before doing so it might well need to feed up - in previous autumns I have seen this species feeding on rotten fruit. I'm left wondering how far a red admiral can travel between feeds - and hoping that it made it across the Channel!

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