My butterfly forays this week started on Monday with good views of a single male Silver-washed Fritillary during a transect walk on Ashtead Common.
During this walk I recorded 9 different species with Meadow Brown (see left) producing the highest count of 58 separate individuals. The other species were Small Skipper (3), Small/Essex Skipper (4), Large Skipper (9), White Admiral (1), Red Admiral (1), Speckled Wood (6) and Ringlet (13).
Record shot (above) of a resting Ringlet.
On Thursday I joined a Butterfly Conservation walk at Bookham Common and after a very quiet start with total cloud cover and a sprinkling of rain the group eventually logged 18 species including a brief high flying view of a Purple Emperor plus good numbers of White Admiral and plenty Silver-washed Fritillary.
At our lunch stop I saw my first Gatekeeper of the year, a very fresh male (above) and a slight detour from our planned route enabled me to also add Comma (below) to the day list.
Today I undertook another recording session on Ashtead Common in much higher temperatures and again logged nine separate species which included the usual Skippers (17), Large White (1), Purple Hairstreak (1), Peacock (1), Silver-washed Fritillary (1) plus White Admiral (7) and larger counts of Meadow Brown (61) together with Ringlets (37).
Best recording day so far this year with a total of 126 individual butterflies logged .... I wonder how many I missed!
As expected the White Admirals were fairly active; flying in the shade close to Honeysuckle, their host plant; so I only had a brief opportunity for a record shot when one individual perched for a moment or two in not a particularly ideal location.
I was slightly surprised not to find more Silver-washed Fritillary but I'll end this post with another image of the individual I located earlier this week. FAB.
Glad you are finally some flutters in number!
ReplyDeleteI'm just back from Alaska, and I'm so impressed with your butterfly photography!! Beautiful photos, FAB!!
ReplyDeleteWonderfull butterfly shots, greeting from Belgium with a hot hot weather!
ReplyDeletehttp://louisette.eklablog.com
These are beautiful capturesof these lovely butterflies.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful..... wonderful shots!!!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous collection of butterflies, they walk sounds lovely. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Have a happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteAll so lovely. The Gatekeeper is my pick of all of them.
ReplyDeleteNot quite my cup of tea Frank but still very interesting.(My lenses can't get that close)
ReplyDeleteGorgeous butterflies. A butterfly conservation walk ... what fun! Happy Critter Day!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos of all the lovely butterflies.
ReplyDeleteFantastic pictures Frank. I've been out today with mainly Speckled Wood and Red Admiral about but the odd meadow brown too. Love that Silver-Washed Fritillary. I've not seen one before.
ReplyDeleteNice butterflies, Frank! (You might consider cross-linking with Andy's thread, too.)
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Lovely pictures. Up until recently the weather has been lousy here. At least it has warmed up now. On 1st July we had a mass invasion of Red Admirals here. They came in off the sea in their thousands. Now I am getting reports of them from all over East lothian!
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying these butterfly images!
ReplyDeleteMagníficas Frank, me han gustado mucho. Saludos desde España.
ReplyDeleteA good collection Frank. I only managed to see briefly (one in a hurry) male SW Fritillary so far, but no White Admirals or Gatekeepers, but your photos are a hopeful sign for the next few weeks up here.
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