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.
The Silver Washed Fritillary is a butterfly of the woodland fringe and this morning males patrol in rapid flight. I hope they’ll settle on bramble flowers, or honeysuckle high in the trees, but they flit by. The morning is sensational with fragrance of water mint, honeysuckle, marjoram (oreganum vulgare), and there are spiders' webs in the grass. A runner goes by and the earth trembles, we’re on the peat fringe so the ground is soft with mud where butterflies can hydrate and sip mineral salts. Sloes ripen on blackthorn, there are green hazelnuts and green spindle berries. A buzzard calls. Black cap, chiff chaff and wren are singing. Swallows call about the farm and there's a chorus of grasshoppers.
Bramble flowers are looking good. Hemp agrimony buds flush lilac but have yet to open fully. Purple loosestrife looks lovely. There are myriad small butterflies but Silver Washed Fritillary is my hope, and they’re so restless we focus on them, learn their behaviour and habit.
A flash of sunlit gold against the deep cool shadows of the woodland trees. Silver Washed Fritillaries are all around us. They patrol the woodland fringe and fly out of the shadows and over bramble flowers and some seem attracted to my friend’s white sunhat, aborting flight so close before us. We become familiar with the rhythm and pattern of their flight. Useless to try for still images but I take videos where the large butterflies show in sunbursts of deep gold.
It’s hot but we find plenty of shade and the morning is delightful. We plan to return, now we know exactly the conditions the butterflies like and where we might find them.
Bramble flowers are looking good. Hemp agrimony buds flush lilac but have yet to open fully. Purple loosestrife looks lovely. There are myriad small butterflies but Silver Washed Fritillary is my hope, and they’re so restless we focus on them, learn their behaviour and habit.
A flash of sunlit gold against the deep cool shadows of the woodland trees. Silver Washed Fritillaries are all around us. They patrol the woodland fringe and fly out of the shadows and over bramble flowers and some seem attracted to my friend’s white sunhat, aborting flight so close before us. We become familiar with the rhythm and pattern of their flight. Useless to try for still images but I take videos where the large butterflies show in sunbursts of deep gold.
It’s hot but we find plenty of shade and the morning is delightful. We plan to return, now we know exactly the conditions the butterflies like and where we might find them.
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