Butterflies To The Fore

 Shozzer and I decided to pay a call on the Ring Haw part of the Old Sulehay complex where Dark Green Fritillaries have recently been reported from. This county rarity is fairly hard to connect with and true to form Al and I both drew a blank in our efforts to find one.  Under often grey and sometimes wet conditions we laboured to find much of note though I ended up with a quite respectable total of butterfly species.

Marbled White and Ringlets

|I saw my first Marbled Whites of the year yesterday as I walked towards my work at Deichmann along Cockerell Rd. Many more followed today and they were joined by plenty of Meadow Browns and also my first Ringlets of the year. At first under grey skies we struggled to find much of note though matters did improve as the morning wore on. Several Painted Ladies and Red Admirals were observed as we walked along the main path and I also found my first Small Skippers of the year, a few Large were also noted. Large, Small and Green-veined Whites were all seen and I was also happy to find a Comma. Eventually we decided to up sticks and head elsewhere but not before I saw yet another year first, a Silver-washed Fritillary next to where we parked the car.

Small Skipper, Common Blues and Painted Lady

Our next stop was at Bedford Purlieus which is just over the county border though not despite its name anywhere near Bedford! The skies were pretty grey while we were here and finding any insects of note proved to be a bit of a struggle. Half a dozen Silver-washed Frits were welcome particularly as they all looked so fresh. Failing to see any White-lettered Hairstreaks here was a bit of a downer but I hope there will be other opportunities over the next couple of weeks. Our final stop of the day was at a different part of the purlieus where we were treated to excellent views of a Dark Green Fritillary that Shozzer found nectaring on knapweed flowers. The day ended on not unfamiliar territory with a pint in the reliably excellent Cross Keys in King's Cliffe.

Meadow Brown, Silver Washed and Dark Green Fritillaries