For Lisa, her main target this year is to see the remaining 3 species of butterfly on the British mainland, which she hasn't as yet managed to get.
The most difficult on paper would be the Glanville Fritillary, which is only found naturally on the Isle of Wight. Although there are a few colonies that have been introduced to other sites, it really is much more rewarding seeing them where they are meant to be!!
Of course, the Isle of Wight does throw up a few issues. For a start, you can only get there by an expensive ferry crossing, and you also need to book up the bed and breakfast in advance so it's then a risk with the weather. Originally we were thinking of going for 2 nights, but then we realised that the ferry would be the same cost if we extended the trip further. So, we decided on 3 nights and to catch an early ferry to give us effectively 4 days to see the butterfly and other local wildlife. On our return trip we would head a little further westward to visit Martin Down. Hopefully we'd see the Marsh Fritillary, a species we had both seen several times before, but are always a delight to see.
As the trip came nearer, the forecast was a little mixed, but generally okay with the odd chance of rain and lots of sunny intervals too. The winds however, looked more favourable, being generally quite light. In fact, on the ferry over we could have been on a millpond. It was quite cloudy when we arrived at Fishbourne, which is what I was hoping as the butterflies are much easier to photograph before they warm up and become very lively!! However, when we were only 10 minutes away from Compton Down the clouds lifted and the sun emerged. We were extremely fortunate, as there was still a slight sea mist when we got to the actual site that was keeping the temperature down a little.
It was only a matter of a few minutes before we saw the main target of the trip and Lisa had her first Glanville Fritillary. This was quickly followed by another couple of butterflies. One, a female, was briefly disturbed as we walked by, but with the cool conditions it promptly went back to roost.
Soon after, the temperature increased enough for the butterfly to become a little more active. She was soon on some Thrift. The Glanville Fritillary often use Thrift as a nectar source, but here it was to enable her to spread her wings to warm up.
Female Glanville Fritillary on Thrift.
Things improved for us as she was next on some tall Red Sorrel. She looked absolutely amazing. As she was still warming up, she stayed long enough on this to photograph her from several angles. So early on our Isle of Wight adventure, we couldn't have hoped for a better start than this.
Female Glanville Fritillary on Red Sorrel.
The morning soon warmed up further and the butterflies became much more active. As we wandered across the site we soon started to see many more Fritillaries, as well as other butterfly and moth species. With so many Glanville Fritillaries, and some that were obviously just emerging, it was only a matter of time before a mating pair was found. During the trip we saw 5 mating pairs, Lisa found 3 of the pairs, one of them found us as they flew past, and I found a pair on the final day.
The pairing below was the first of the them.
Mating Glanville Fritillaries.
With this pair, the male was enjoying a bit of nectar from the Thrift.
Eventually, it was time to head to our B&B in Ventnor. It doesn't seem that long ago when Pen and I were here. That trip was also for me to see the Glanville Fritillary in its natural habitat for the first time. That trip then turned out to be our final trip away together, so I did have mixed emotions with some lovely memories from that time.
The B&B that Lisa had found for this trip was superb, with it being walking distance to Wheeler's Bay, an area very well known for the Glanville Fritillary. After relaxing for a while in the garden, we decided to walk to Wheeler's Bay and try to time it just before the butterflies were going to go to roost. As we walked along the path under the cliffs, with the sea to our right, we were struggling to find any butterflies. However, eventually we came to a large patch of Red Valerian and suddenly I saw a Fritillary fly up. It then became clear that several butterflies were feeding and preparing to roost on the valerian plants. Although not a totally natural plant, it did make for a nice image, particularly with the light shining through the wings.
Glanville Fritillary on Red Valerian.
Soon the butterflies all went to roost, as the sun went behind the clifftops. Most of the butterflies were roosting on the Valerian, but some were settled on grasses and Plantains.
Glanville Fritillary on grass seed-head.
Following this we headed to the Spyglass Inn, at the end of the promenade for a relaxing dinner. What a brilliant first day on the Isle of Wight.
Day 2 started in sunshine and we were soon heading back to Compton Down. The terrain was certainly challenging at times, but we are used to climbing up and down the South Downs, so we coped pretty well. In the pools at the bottom of the cliffs there were lots of Tadpoles. Dragonflies were also seen around the pools, with a Broad-bodied Chaser egg laying and newly emerged Emperor Dragonflies hawking around. We also saw our first Large Skippers of the year during the trip.
Male Large Skipper.
Another surprise was a Bee Orchid. This was near the beach, rather than on the hilltops where we would have expected it more.
Bee Orchid.
With it being warmer right from the start of the day, it was much more challenging getting photos of the Fritillaries because they were so active. However, we were still seeing the odd newly emerged butterflies, and we were hoping for more mating pairs.
The only decent image that I achieved on day 2 of a Glanville was one that was warming up after a brief cloudy moment on some Bramble.
Glanville Fritillary on Bramble.
On our return to Ventnor, we tried a couple of the Chines to see if we could find any more colonies of the butterfly. The first one proved unsuccessful, but when we got to Whale Chine we found very good numbers of the butterfly. Most of them were now very active, but it was great wandering around watching them. We also saw a couple Mother Shipton moths and a few Common Blue. The good thing about Whale Chine was that it was much nearer to where we were staying, so we decided we would call back again before we left the island.
The following day, we decided on a change of scenery, with a trip to Parkhurst Forest near the centre of the island. It was much quieter than we thought it would be with a few dog walkers that didn't go far from the car park. The big attraction here is the Red Squirrel, and we were fortunate enough to see a couple of these delightful creatures. We also had our first Meadow Brown of the year, as well as a lovely Common Toad that wandered across the track in front of us. Another surprise was when I heard a Nightjar churring in the wood. Unfortunately, it didn't continue churring. Just before we got back to the carpark, a Firecrest was seen. It was clear it had a nest nearby, as it was carrying food for its young.
Common Toad.
Following Parkhurst, we headed back to Whale Chine. Once again the Fritillaries were quite active, so only a couple of shots were taken. I did quite like this one though, of one peeping around the Thrift.
Glanville Fritillary on Thrift.
In the evening, we ended up again at Wheeler's Bay. This time there appeared to be less Glanville's but as they went to roost one was found on the larval food-plant of Plantain.
Glanville Fritillary preparing to go to roost.
Eventually closing up to roost on Plantain.
Our final day on the Isle of Wight started with torrential rain and with the weather forecast showing very little improvement. After breakfast, as we were packing, the rain continued to pour down, but as we left the hotel the rain did start to ease a little. We headed to Whale Chine on the off chance of finding some butterflies at roost. This was actually much easier than we had been expecting, as many of the butterflies were roosting on some of the higher plants. They were certainly braving the elements and were looking pretty wet. On the plus side, until the weather improved, they were not going to fly off anywhere!!
Roosting Glanville Fritillaries.
From where we were, we could see that further along the coast the skies were looking slightly brighter. So after a lovely, successful wet session, we once again headed for Compton, hoping our final hours on the island would give us one last flourish.
Although it was still raining when we arrived at Compton, the clouds had certainly lifted, and with it the temperature had also increased. After finding very little, certainly the Glanville's here were not roosting high up, we were beginning to think that we had had the best of things. Lisa then disturbed a lovely female Glanville, and as the temperature increased yet further, a Large Skipper and a few damselflies were spotted. The Glanville did briefly fly and land on more Thrift. This gave me one of my favourite underwing shots.
Glanville Fritillary on Thrift.
By this time, the weather still wasn't looking very good, so we decided that we would soon head back to the ferry terminal at Fishbourne. Suddenly, my eye was caught by a shape in the tall grass. I quickly lifted the binoculars and focused on what turned out to be a wonderful mating pair. Despite them being in the long grass, they had crawled up to a height where we could see and photograph them without stray blades of grass getting in the way. The female, which was on top, even opened her wings for a short time to give a wonderful view of her lovely top wings.
Mating Pair of Glanville Fritillaries.
Open wing of the female Glanville Fritillary.
My final shot of the mating Glanville Fritillaries.
After enjoying watching these beautiful, special butterflies, it was great being able to walk away from them as they continued mating.
The trip back to Fishbourne took a little longer than expected, but we did just arrive in time to catch an earlier ferry. We had wanted to get this so we could reach the pub in Martin in time for dinner. I really appreciated this, as the pub served up one of the best curries I've ever had.
The next morning, we travelled the short journey to Martin Down. It's one of my favourite nature reserves for seeing the Marsh Fritillary. As it happened, we had to work really hard to find any of these. With the warm spring, the butterflies had been out much earlier than usual, and as a result, were now nearing the very end of their flight season. We only saw 5 of them and they were generally very worn, so I didn't photograph any of them. Though, it was good to see so many Small Eggar larval webs. There were also plenty of Small Blue, Grizzled Skipper and a few Adonis Blue, which included a mating pair, of which the female was an aberrant krodeli form.
Adonis Blue pair. (female aberrant krodeli).
There were also some great birds around, with plenty of Corn Bunting, Red Kites and Yellowhammers.
Yellowhammer calling.
On our local hills we get lots of Six-spot Burnet moths, but the common one at Martin Down was the five-spot Burnet.
Five-spot Burnet.
We also saw several Forester moths. The only one I photographed turned out to be a Scarce Forester, but I didn't look closely at the others. The one I photographed was enjoying nectaring on Mignonette.
Scarce Forester on Mignonette.
Eventually, we decided we should head for home. We were both pretty tired by now, having spent many days out in the field looking for butterflies and moths.
Lisa had managed to see one of the remaining 3 butterflies she needed to see. Next target would be the Heath Fritillary. At least there won't be a ferry needed then!!
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