Underwings, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary 7 July 2012 Wings over Scout Scar, July 2012
Rain, rain, rain, flash floods, rivers on flood alert. Relentless rain through April, June and late into July. The jet stream was locked too far south, again. After overnight rain, vegetation was lush. The morning was humid and warm, an al fresco sauna fragrant with herbs. Shadow-wings flickered about my shadow in an hour of bright sun. Before raindrops evaporated, flowers and grasses were astir with micro-moths. Fritillaries were everywhere, foraging for nectar and pollen, in courtship flight, mating and egg-laying.
Rain, rain, rain, flash floods, rivers on flood alert. Relentless rain through April, June and late into July. The jet stream was locked too far south, again. After overnight rain, vegetation was lush. The morning was humid and warm, an al fresco sauna fragrant with herbs. Shadow-wings flickered about my shadow in an hour of bright sun. Before raindrops evaporated, flowers and grasses were astir with micro-moths. Fritillaries were everywhere, foraging for nectar and pollen, in courtship flight, mating and egg-laying.
The surround-sound was grasshoppers and lark song. Skylark and pipit beaks were stuffed with winged insects. Synchronicity: an abundance of insects was perfectly timed for hungry fledglings. Skylark would soon fall silent, their breeding season accomplished. Anthills were floral hotspots, their purple thyme and yellow bird’s-foot trefoil sprinkled with moths, butterflies and bees. There was fragrant lady’s bedstraw, eyebright, tormentil, fairy flax, white bedstraws and dropwort. In my stillness and silence, a family of linnet came close. Kestrel and peregrine were vocal. Young swallows twittered about the farm.
In their short lives, six spot burnets seem to spend hours mating. A day-flying moth, their flight is a rapid whirring of wings. Black and scarlet wings spell danger and warn-off birds: a shot of histamines for meddling, anticyanins for a serious assault. Caught in the light, the scarlet hind-wing shadows veins that seem drenched with blood. Clubbed antennae are steel blue and segmented and the moth has black hairs on head and abdomen. In this burnet stronghold they were everywhere – no need to hide with those toxins.
In their short lives, six spot burnets seem to spend hours mating. A day-flying moth, their flight is a rapid whirring of wings. Black and scarlet wings spell danger and warn-off birds: a shot of histamines for meddling, anticyanins for a serious assault. Caught in the light, the scarlet hind-wing shadows veins that seem drenched with blood. Clubbed antennae are steel blue and segmented and the moth has black hairs on head and abdomen. In this burnet stronghold they were everywhere – no need to hide with those toxins.
The air was full of wings but the sky grew dark and the next downpour was imminent. A flicker of orange, and a small pearl-bordered fritillary closed its wings and resembled a blade of grass. Close-up and broadside, its under-wing is striking and dramatic, designed to bewilder predators. Step back, and cryptic colouring works like magic as the butterfly disappears amongst flowers. A flow of dark lines traces strange asymmetries and a wash of colour smudges and blurs. Eyes are not eyes. The wing is like a medieval stained-glass window reassembled from random fragments. Contemplate the pearls, the lunulae, the intricate pattern of the under-wing, if you wish to distinguish one fritillary from another. How to confuse predators: the question was urgent in the Great War, to protect shipping from U-boats. Impossible to hide ships at sea, instead disrupt and confuse with dazzle-ships bold in pattern and colour. The strategy was copied from camouflage in the natural world and the artist was known as a camoufleur. The evolution of butterfly camouflage is a marvel and I like the idea of a Grand Designer: the camoufleur who hides butterflies in flowers. Scout Scar is a resource for pollinators, bees and butterflies. There’s splendour in the grass on butterfly days, and when they’re not on the wing there’s always something to discover. Spiders draw tall stems together to weave their nests. Filaments follow each stem of grass and a tangle of spider-silk gathers seed-heads to protect the brood. Affixed to grasses there are exuviae: the empty larval cases discarded as butterflies and moths emerge.
From Wings Over Scout Scar, Cumbrian Contrasts copyright
From Wings Over Scout Scar, Cumbrian Contrasts copyright
I share this extract to highlight contrasts. The weather was very different that spring and summer. The zone of Scout Scar I write about in my book is exactly where I photographed a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary on 2nd June 2020. In 2012 there's a sense of abundance, a habitat pulsing with life. I study wildlife, I take photographs - this is not a butterfly count of a transect. But I know this location intimately. And the impression of abundance of 2012 is in contrast to the spring and early summer of 2020.
Whilst writing that chapter Wings Over Scout Scar I was studying crypsis, camouflage, and ways in which butterflies use it as a defence against predators. I came upon this Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary when it was at rest for some while on flowering thyme on an anthill. The image shows the underwing well. It's opaque because sunlight was not strong.
My underwing sequence from June 2020 shows the butterfly with its wings transfused by strong sunlight, which is aesthetically pleasing but it doesn't show the pattern so clearly.
Martin Tordoff surveys a transect on Helsington Barrows, counting butterflies and moths over 15 seasons. His is a different discipline from mine as nature writer and photographer. He reports ' as with most species the, numbers of SPBF have fallen steadily over the years, yet with no apparent degradation of the habitat. Pearl-bordered and High Brown Fritillaries both appear to have been lost on the site in the past few years, though I live in hope, and in any case there are many pockets of this large site I don't regularly explore.’
I walked round the transect on Monday 1 June 2020 , and recorded only seven SPBFs, a fairly typical result nowadays'
His conclusion of loss of numbers, loss of species accords with my impression and the photographic evidence of my archive.
Thanks to Martin for this information.
Whilst writing that chapter Wings Over Scout Scar I was studying crypsis, camouflage, and ways in which butterflies use it as a defence against predators. I came upon this Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary when it was at rest for some while on flowering thyme on an anthill. The image shows the underwing well. It's opaque because sunlight was not strong.
My underwing sequence from June 2020 shows the butterfly with its wings transfused by strong sunlight, which is aesthetically pleasing but it doesn't show the pattern so clearly.
Martin Tordoff surveys a transect on Helsington Barrows, counting butterflies and moths over 15 seasons. His is a different discipline from mine as nature writer and photographer. He reports ' as with most species the, numbers of SPBF have fallen steadily over the years, yet with no apparent degradation of the habitat. Pearl-bordered and High Brown Fritillaries both appear to have been lost on the site in the past few years, though I live in hope, and in any case there are many pockets of this large site I don't regularly explore.’
I walked round the transect on Monday 1 June 2020 , and recorded only seven SPBFs, a fairly typical result nowadays'
His conclusion of loss of numbers, loss of species accords with my impression and the photographic evidence of my archive.
Thanks to Martin for this information.
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