Sunshine and Suffering

Once upon a time there was a backward sort of birder who, on realising that he couldn't actually seawatch every second of the summer, cast about for pretty things to look at. He discovered dragonflies, and they were good, but there was more. Butterflies, too, he realised could be looked at on those sunny days when the shearwaters stayed happily miles and miles away.




Yeah, I've been out in the noonday sun again...



Yesterday, anyway, as I've gone and bent myself again. I had an unfortunate incident with the sill of my patio door and my poor toe has gone blue, black, red and is now purple.. Hey, at least it didn't break ::knocks wood::



So, I've been waiting for a kite to fly over today instead of getting out and about. Nope, not a sniff.. :(



Yesterday I decided to go on another fritillary hunt, this time going after the violet munchers. I went to a publicised site, this by BC themselves, and I even managed to see some butterflies! I did not have the paparazzi setup with me, and this I came to regret as when I eventually found the right bit of the place [its not a small site, but the right bit is] and one small patch of Brambles had more than a dozen frits of 4 species, plus plenty of others, coming and going....

My attempts at phonebinning were... not good. But here you go anyway;

[Mua-ha-ha-ha-h-ha]

They liked the Bramble flowers.

A little too much, as there were frequent disputes,

not only with other butterflies, but also flies and beetles!

With small targets at close range in bright sunshine,

 it was more luck than judgement getting anything!

Name That Fritillary

While the Dark Greens were the best posers, 

this one seems to have an awful lot of white on the underwing??

As well as the assorted large and small fritillaries, there 9 butterfly species on the wing, including quite a few Brimstones, a single Wall, and loads of wonderful sparkling Green Hairstreaks. Watching a pair of duelling males come right up and around me, so close I could have touched them, flashing jet and emerald in the sunshine, was I have to admit, even better than the frit-fest that was to come..

They were even worse at sitting still - as they'd do it, then bugger off as you lined up! So, this blur is all I got;

That is a butterfly. 

Really.

Small Heaths also in good numbers, very mobile all, though none as bad-ass as one of the hairstreaks, which beat up a Small Tortoiseshell 4 times its size! Even more bad-ass was a Hornet, which cruised through while everything got out of its way - well, I did anyway! :)



Very hot, but worth it.




TTFN