What Likes Ivy?

Red Admiral butterfly, Vanessa atalanta.  Gates Green Road, Coney Hall, 10 September 2011.

Many creatures like ivy. During most of the year, it shelters invertebrates, birds and bats. Then, it flowers late in the year and provides a feast of nectar for insects of many sorts.

So if you watch out for a bank of ivy to come into flower, you are very likely to see this butterfly, the Red Admiral, which seems to be particularly attracted. The Red Admiral is a real beauty, not just for its open-winged appearance which, indeed, is admired by many, but for these amazing underwings, which look like the marbled endpapers in an old book.

Red Admiral butterfly, Vanessa atalanta.  Detail.  Gates Green Road, Coney Hall, 10 September 2011.