Sunday 26 October 2014

Best Bits of 2014.

Unlike 2012 and 2013 which were highlighted by sightings of the Large Tortoiseshell at Walters Copse,Newtown, this year the butterfly was not to be seen despite a good search in the spring.We can just hope that next season it will excite us with it's presence.
At the end of May I took a trip to Hod Hill in Dorset to get my first look at the Marsh Fritillary. This lovely butterfly is no longer resident on the Isle of Wight and I was not disappointed when at last I came across several individuals sheltering away in a grassy old hill fort moat from the inclement weather that day.
Another excellent highlight was a second brood of White Admirals in Walters Copse in September.This species had done well here in the summer but to see three pristine White Admirals  so late in the season was a treat.
Perhaps the highlight of 2014 though,had to be recording the first Glanville Fritillaries on the wing in the UK.As usual they appeared at Wheelers Bay,Bonchurch in April.This site is always the first site to produce this unique butterfly and is followed throughout May by other Island colonies on our south west coastal cliffs.
The Glanville pictured below is from Wheelers Bay,photographed on the 30th April and it can be classed as a variant partly due to it's rather dark hind wing colouring.





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