Thursday 11 July 2019

Butterfly Special Venue 7 Days On

The weather wasn't perfect a week to the day since our last visit, but it wasn't quite so solidly overcast.  The sunny spells were longer, and the wind was hardly discernible, whilst the week before it had been very gusty indeed.  About 25 years ago I wasted a whole 36 exposure film attempting to take photos of Silver-Washed Fritillaries in a wood in Worcestershire. When the film was developed every photo contained a empty flower, or an orange streak disappearing out of shot. On Monday in Lincolnshire, I was finally able to correct this deficiency. What a beautiful butterfly it is!  I now can almost forgive it for its past elusiveness
Male Silver-Studded Fritillary
As we waited for butterflies to appear in the main place where various paths intersect asomething was spotted hovering around the flowers of Vipers' Bugloss.  I was surprised to see a very fresh-looking Broad-Bordered Bee Hawk Moth.  The previous week we hadn't seen any.  It is quite late in the season for this particular insect.  
Broad-Bordered Bee Hawk Moth
 ditto
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A hairstreak was spotted in exactly the same place as we saw a White-letter Hairstreak the previous week.  However, this time is seemed to confirm to the characteristics of a Black Hairstreak. 
Black Hairstreak?
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Waiting for a cloudy period to end, I spotted a large Orange butterfly a short distance away.  This was our first Silver-Washed fritillary this year.  It seemed to be trying to gain warmth by opening its wings on bramble leaf.  later as we walked back, I saw another male on the flowers of a Hogweed.
Silver-Washed Fritillary
 Underside
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We had almost returned to the car park when we came across a couple taking photographs of a basking White Admiral.  Last week we saw it with its wings closed, this time its wings were wide open the whole time. There were still no signs of Purple Emperors, and of course the absolutely stunning Brown Hairstreaks haven't emerged yet, so more visits will have to take place...
White Admiral
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 Large White
 Ringlet
 Agrimony
Unidentified White Flower


2 comments:

Jan said...

The hawk moth has transparent wings! That’s amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it. Definitely going there again!

janer said...

Lovely . Flower could be sneezewort