Stunning photos show rare butterflies in full flight for the first time

By Adam Dutton via SWNS

Stunning close-up photographs show two of Britain's rarest butterflies captured in full flight for the first time.

Wildlife photographer Andrew Fusek-Peters, 58, snapped the large checkered skipper and continental swallow after being invited to a secret location in Jersey.

Incredible composite photos show two of the British Isles' most rarely seen butterflies gracefully taking flight from flowers on the Channel Island.

Large checkered skippers went extinct in Jersey in 1996 but breeding pairs were discovered in 2020 in the north of the island.

Continental swallowtails are mainly spotted on the south coast of the UK but their numbers have been dwindling in recent years with only one sighting this year.

A rare Continental swallowtail butterfly photographed in Jersey. (Andrew Fusek Peters via SWNS)

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Andrew believes he could have snapped the last of the continental swallowtails in Jersey as climate change and severe weather conditions affect their population.

"The large checkered skipper in particular is ultra rare. In 1946 it turned up in Jersey and had a small colony there," he said.

"The theory is that they came over in hay for the horses. That small colony became extinct in Jersey in 1996.

"Last year there were about 60 on the island. The French call it Le Miroir as underneath it looks like a mirror.

"I was the first outsider to photograph them as they keep the location a secret. The three days I was there we saw five or six of them.

"The swallowtail arrived on the south coast of England but hasn’t been spotted much since.

"They breed in Jersey, but only a few. These are in secret locations, only the locals know.

"These are ultra, ultra rare. Look what’s around us on our doorsteps, I didn’t have to go to Africa to get these.

"They're on the north of the island. It's a beautiful island but we're very worried that the colony could die out.

"I could have got one of the last pictures of the large checkered skippers in Jersey."