Here's a nice Great Spangled Fritillary [Speyeria cybele], again feasting on our soft thistle.
There's huge competition for the blooms this year, with fierce battles amongst the Admirals, Swallowtails, Fritillaries and the rare Monarch.
I guess the clearcut deforestation of an adjoining thirty acres, leaving nothing but dirt and rocks, isn't helping things on the butterflies' menu. 
The good news is that the cabbage whites [invader species] are way down in numbers this year, likely due to our amazingly harsh previous winter.
I reckon it all balances out somehow. 
I never seem to see butterflies round here, but I am content to enjoy Asy's and Eccles
No Dig Site find today? (I know, I am greedy)
More butterflies than there are flowers sounds good to me. I only ever get to see one or two at a time here.
So what are they planning to do next door on that thirty acres? planting a crop or building? I assume that either would be useless to the butterflies.
I only ever see the whites so maybe they escaped to the UK.
I don't see thistle these days either although I did used to.
They claim to be just about to build 6 McMansions, even though there's no market for them now or for the forseeable future. And beyond the stooopid building site is a new Electricity Power Plant. All on "mountain overlay" land that was supposed to be protected against development. 
Sorry Merry, nothing in good shape from the dig site... just lots of little fragments of glass and china. We shall keep looking, though. 
do you think that instead of throwing our old glass and china to rubbish bins or giving to charity shops that we should bury it in the yard or garden so that future generations can dig it up later.
Yes, next to some old coins. Somebody will love it in the next century!
That one is very like our high brown and dark green fritillaries. You're so lucky to have such a wide variety of butterfly species. Look after them well!