Start with the basics: when and where to look

Butterfly watching is one of the most forgiving kinds of wildlife spotting. You do not need a long lens or a special reserve. You need a warm, still, sunny day between about eleven in the morning and four in the afternoon, when butterflies are warm enough to be on the wing. Choose somewhere sheltered from the wind: a south-facing hedgerow, a bramble patch, a wildflower verge beside a footpath, or a garden with a sunny corner.

Two things will help you more than anything else. First, size and behaviour: bouncy, flitting, low flight over grass usually means one of the browns, while strong, fast flapping around a shrub means something like a peacock or small tortoiseshell. Second, sit still. Chasing butterflies never works. Stand quietly by a nectar source and they will often come to you, sometimes landing within arm's reach.

The browns: meadow brown, gatekeeper, ringlet and speckled wood

The meadow brown is the classic summer butterfly of rough grass and roadside verges, flying from June to September. It looks dull brown and slightly moth-like until it settles, when you can see a single black eye spot with a white pupil near the tip of the forewing, set in a wash of orange. Females are noticeably more orange than males. In flight it bobs and dips low over the grass, and it usually rests with wings closed, showing a grey-brown underside.

The gatekeeper is smaller, more orange, and on the wing mainly in July and August. Look for the eye spot with two white pupils, and, crucially, a white bar across the middle of the lower hindwing. It loves the edge where long grass meets bramble or scrub.

The ringlet is dark, velvety chocolate brown with rows of small rings containing white centres and no orange at all. It favours damp, rough grassland from June to August and, unusually, will fly in dull, drizzly weather when other species are roosting.

The speckled wood is a woodland butterfly, brown with creamy patches, found in dappled rides and along hedges from spring to autumn. Males perch in sunny patches and spiral upwards in tumbling territorial flights.

• Orange patch around the eye spot? Meadow brown or gatekeeper.
• Two pupils and a white bar? Gatekeeper.
• Rings but no orange? Ringlet.
• Cream spots and a woodland setting? Speckled wood.

The bold ones: peacock, small tortoiseshell and red admiral

The peacock is genuinely hard to mistake. Four large eye spots on rich red wings, designed to startle birds. It hibernates as an adult, so you may find one in a cool shed, garage or hollow tree in midwinter. It wakes in March and April, breeds, and a second brood appears in late July and August, feeding hard on buddleia before settling down for winter. Seen from below it is almost black, resembling a dead leaf.

The small tortoiseshell is orange with black spots and bands, pale yellow-white patches on the forewing, and a lovely row of blue crescents around the edge of the hindwing. It also hibernates as an adult, often indoors, and its caterpillars depend on nettles. Numbers have fallen sharply in recent decades, so a garden record is worth noting.

The red admiral is blackish with bold red bands and white spots near the forewing tip, and it now overwinters here increasingly. Look for it in late summer on buddleia and on fallen fruit. The painted lady arrives as a migrant from warmer climes; in a good year, hundreds appear along the coast, looking like a paler, more orange red admiral. The comma, with its ragged wing edges and white comma mark underneath, is another hibernator worth knowing.

Whites, brimstone and orange-tip

The brimstone is usually the first butterfly of the year, appearing on the first mild March days. Males are lemon yellow, females a pale greenish white, and both have pointed, leaf-shaped wings with visible veins. They hibernate among ivy and holly.

The orange-tip flies from mid-April to June. Males have unmistakable orange wingtips; females look like a white butterfly, so check the underside, which is finely mottled in green and grey. It lays on cuckooflower and garlic mustard.

Of the whites, the large white is bigger with heavy black tips to the forewings, the small white is daintier with greyer tips, and the green-veined white shows green-grey veins beneath. All three are common in gardens and allotments.

Plant for nectar and for caterpillars

• Buddleia is the single best late-summer shrub, especially if deadheaded to keep it flowering.
• Sedum spectabile, lavender and verbena are superb in August and September.
• Wild marjoram, knapweed, ox-eye daisy, purple loosestrife and hemp agrimony suit a wilder patch.
• Leave bramble, thistle and nettles in the sun — the first two feed adults, nettles feed peacock, small tortoiseshell, comma and red admiral caterpillars.
• Native grasses and bird's-foot trefoil support the browns and blues.

A season-by-season cheat sheet

• March to April: brimstone, peacock, comma and small tortoiseshell waking from hibernation; orange-tip from mid-April.
• May to June: orange-tip, green-veined white, speckled wood, first meadow browns, common blue.
• July to August: gatekeeper, ringlet and meadow brown at their peak; second-brood peacocks and tortoiseshells.
• August to September: red admiral, painted lady, peacock and small tortoiseshell crowding buddleia.

A last tip: try to see each butterfly both with wings open and closed, because the underside markings often settle an identification. Keep a few notes of dates and places, and within a season or two you will know your local butterflies as old friends.