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Sylvan with Silver Washed Fritillary, Brimstone and Comma

26/7/2021

Brimstone diaphanous in sunlight 26 July 2021

Sunlight beams down through cloud and illuminates a woodland glade and all the butterflies seeking nectar from flowers. Delicate feet are poised amongst florets of hemp agrimony and a proboscis curves down deep to sip nectar. Intent on feeding. the butterfly is vulnerable to predation. Diaphanous in sunlight, the brimstone resembles a leaf, in the shape of its wings and the delicate green of the female underwing. A cryptic colouring and shape enables the brimstone to blend into its surroundings.

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Sylvan with Silver Washed Fritillary

24/7/2021

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Silver Washed Fritillary on Hemp Agrimony

Mine is a sylvan quest through a heat-wave in July. Deep shadows of the woodland fringe are the habitat of the Silver Washed Fritillary. On butterfly watch, we linger over flowers until the Silver Washed Fritillary flies from the shadows on wings of bright gold. When temperatures soared I fell in love with sylvan fragrances, with cool shadow and sunlit glade, and a woodland flora on the spring-line where water mint grows,

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Silver Washed Fritillary, in the picture

21/7/2021

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Silver Washed Fritillary, at first glimpse

From the first, the morning was hot with scarcely a breath of air. The wood was calm and still. Only the call of a great-spotted woodpecker, the mew of a buzzard, the whine of hoverflies. Grasshoppers were silent, until the sun rose higher and sunlight flowed into shady glades. Then the grasshopper chorus began Tall grasses and flowers were drenched in refreshing dew that brushed our bare ankles and made cobwebs visible Here was a morning of sensuousness.

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Witherslack Woods, Howe Ridding Wood and High Brown Fritillary

18/7/2021

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Northern Brown Argus on Common Rock Rose

Peregrine were calling over Chapel Head Scar and a pair circled above the crags on Whitbarrow.
Our target species for this butterfly field-trip was the High Brown Fritillary as some had set out at dawn, travelling across the country in the hope of sightings We assembled by old farm buildings and the morning was already hot with a gauze of white cloud. Temperatures were set to reach 25 degrees centigrade. Butterflies would be animated, lively, more of a challenge. Our leader Chris had come prepared.

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Quest for Silver Washed Fritillary: butterfly foray 4

17/7/2021

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Red admiral on bramble

Perfect weather for butterflies, including Silver Washed Fritillary. Bright sun with a high of 27-28 degrees and, sometimes, a whisper of breeze stirs in the canopy.. Butterflies love it, how will we fare? A herd of cows shelters beneath the trees where we plan to park and we share their shade.
To the greenwood. Here is sunlight, dappled shade and banks of shadow. And all the mysteries of a mid-summer woodland to discover, out of the shadows come butterflies.

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The Wild Places: Sizergh with Silver Washed Fritillary

12/7/2021

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A fresh Small Skipper

Are there wild places in Britain, asks the poet Kathleen Jamie? Someone at sometime has been there before us, shaping landscape since the advent of farming in early Neolithic times. We yearn for wild, although it’s illusory.
My destination of the day is not named on the OS map. Our butterfly field-trip is timed for silver washed fritillary. Its peak flight-time is imminent and hemp agrimony, a favoured nectar plant, will soon be in bloom. The silver washed fritillary likes a sunny day. The forecast is for high humidity with an 84% chance of rain! So unpromising.

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Lingmoor and Little Langdale: a nature diary

9/7/2021

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Bog asphodel, Narthecium ossifragum, Lingmoor Fell

A calm and still day with haze over the fells. Bog asphodel is spectacular with drifts of starry yellow flowers beside water-tracks and in boggy cols. Bog pimpernel is elusive and we search to find it. The familiar track rising to LIngmoor is gone, overwhelmed with high summer bracken, the map out-dated. So we slog up through bracken, spiny thistle and thorny rose. When we emerge beside a water-track with bog pimpernel we feel we have earned the flowers.

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Sylvan with Silver Washed Fritillary, Brimstone and Comma

Sylvan with Silver Washed Fritillary

Silver Washed Fritillary, in the picture

Witherslack Woods, Howe Ridding Wood and High Brown Fritillary

Quest for Silver Washed Fritillary: butterfly foray 4

The Wild Places: Sizergh with Silver Washed Fritillary

Lingmoor and Little Langdale: a nature diary

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