Orange tip butterfly icon of season

ONE of the great pleasures of a warm and sunny spring is seeing butterflies on the wing.

One of my favourite early season species is the orange tip.

I’ve been travelling on my boat recently and the canal banks are a sort of linear nature reserve, alive with spring flowers and butterflies. The new growth is visible in the water too because if you look down into the murky depths you can see the ghostly green shapes of water lily pads thrusting up from the canal bed, reaching for the sunlight. But it’s the orange tip butterflies dancing in the air that are the icons of the season.