A couple of days ago I went for a walk over the local Downland hoping to see a good quantity of Dark Green Fritillaries. With light cloud and a bit of a breeze conditions were not perfect but it wasn't long before good numbers were seen. Males were flying low over the tall grass looking for females and although I found a weak flying newly emerged butterfly the wind didn't help to get any decent photos.
Dark Green Fritillary in the breeze.
Sheltering in the undergrowth.
Following this I decided to head out very early yesterday to see if I could find any roosting Fritillaries, as I haven't to date managed any under-side photos of this species that I happy with. I went to the area where I had seen several the day before but I couldn't see any at all!! I continued to wander about as the temperature started to pick up and eventually I spotted a few Marbled Whites and a Dark Green Fritillary. Unfortunately the butterfly had already warmed up too much and promptly flew away. Just a couple of minutes later though I found a lovely specimen with wings wide open as it warmed up in the early morning sunshine. I was lucky to get a few shots before it flew off at break-neck speed. Very pleasing to get a nice image before 6.20am!! Following this good numbers were seen once again as the butterflies woke up and climbed up out of the long grass. I am still waiting for that under-side shot!!
Massive numbers were also seen of Small Heath and on arrival and departure of the site a Hummingbird Hawk Moth was flying at the entrance.
Roosting Small Heath.
A gorgeous Dark Green Fritillary at 6.19am.
No comments:
Post a Comment