Lake District Hunt Day 2

 

The second day started off pretty hot with wall to wall sunshine, not what you expect perhaps in the Lake District. Following on from the success of the first day our targets for the day were the Northern Brown Argus and the High Brown Fritillary. We started at Latterbarrow where the N.B. Argus can be seen with the white spot on the forewing, normally only seen in Scotland. Despite a pretty thorough search no Argus were seen. A fresh Painted Lady was the only notable sighting. We thought we were perhaps too late in the season for the Argus. We then headed to Arnside Knot. It was now very hot, over 30 degrees and with the steep hills it was very hard work. A few Fritillaries seen but they were so active it was hard to say if they were Dark Green or High Brown. The first of the confirmed sightings were a couple of Northern Brown Argus. One was still very fresh although others seen through the day were looking well past their best. High Browns were then also seen but in the heat they did not stop. The odd Grayling was also seen, strangely they have an earlier flight time in the Lakes than they do in Sussex. At lunchtime we went down to the town to have a pie and pint and decide whether we were too tired for another go. Fortunately we decided to go back on site where eventually we found a High Brown willing to pose briefly. It did fortunately show all the id features to distinguish it from the Dark Greens. A fantastic 2 days with all target species seen and photographed.

 

 

Painted Lady.

 

Northern Brown Argus.

 



Grayling.

 



High Brown Fritillary.