Thursday 4 July 2013

Small Tortoiseshell.


After days of searching various locations around my local patch today I finally spotted a colourful flutter trying to hide amongst the grass .. a Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae). Bearing in mind this is a common resident species and one of the first to appear after hibernation, usually in March, I'm surprised it has taken me this long to get some images this year.

It was another breezy morning today with only a few short sunny spells but the weekend forecast suggests more warmth and sunshine at long last so hopefully a few more species will be on the wing.

I'll take this opportunity to wish all my American readers a Glorious Independence Day.   FAB.

Linking to NF Winged.

9 comments:

  1. Hopefully, as you say Frank, with the promise of some decent weather over the next few days we should be inundated with lots of flutters to photograph.
    There were large numbers of these on the wing at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen when we visited on Monday! (sadly we dipped on the Swallowtails!!)
    Here's to a productive next few days...[;o)

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    Replies
    1. Sorry to hear you dipped out Trevor as I was looking forward to seeing the species I've never photographed.

      Let's hope so as I'm a bit fed up with chasing Speckled Woods!!

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  2. Well spotted, and captured:) It's a lovely butterfly and even though it is considered to be a fairly common species,I haven't seen one Tortoiseshell all year where I live.

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  3. Great shots, Frank!! They have been a rare sighting in these parts, too. Hopefully with the coming improvement in the weather we'll be seeing more.

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  4. Beautiful Trtoiseshell Frank. Thanks for the well wishes!

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  5. Great shots. By us there isn't that many butterflies at all. May be the weather has been too cold.
    So it is a pleasure to see some :)
    Have a nice evening.
    Mormor

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  6. Nice shots Frank
    Butterflies seem to be in the minority this year, I have not seen a small Tortoiseshell this year and only one Speckled Wood.

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  7. Lovely shots of this beauty. We haven't had many butterflies here either.

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  8. glad you got the blog back. This Tortoiseshell looks very fresh. Probably not that old.

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