At the woodland clearing close to Calbourne yesterday morning and the skies mainly cloudy with showers just one Queen of Spain Fritillary to be seen when the sun briefly appeared. This male now showing signs of wear and tear. Hopefully a new brood may take flight next month. Also plenty of blues to be seen.
The unmistakable fast erractic-like flight of a Long-tailed Blue was seen this morning in my garden.As usual it was close to the wide expanse of our Everlasting Pea plants. It has been three years since I lasted noted this species in the garden and with the recent reports of individuals close by on the mainland I was not surprised. However I was more than delighted to see them again and it seems from the photographs below that this one is a male. Unlike a female he spent most of his time burrowing into the flowers instead of seeking out buds.
A walk onto Mottistone Down this morning discovered four species of 'blue' butterfly. First of all the second brood Adonis Blue,together with Common and Chalk-hill Blue. The Brown Argus was also out in good numbers and all species were busily nectaring on the downland flora and in paricular Carline Thistle, carlina vulgaris. Other butterflies worth a mention were two Clouded Yellow, now seen widespread here at present.
Brighstone Forest is very close by and a quick visit produced two male Queen of Spain Fritillaries.
Another sunny summers day and a morning visit to Bouldnor Forest. In some places flowering fleabane line the woodland tracks and is always a favourite for butterflies. Therefore it was not a surprise to encounter several Clouded Yellow nectaring on these flowers. A particular treat was to see this helice form which is restricted to females.Appartently up to 15% of females hatch as this form.
On retracing my steps in the forest I was very pleased to see this Queen of Spain Fritillary on the track.It regularly landed in the same location albeit for a short period before flying off to alight farther along the track.
Two Queen of Spain Fritillaries were there to greet me this morning in Brighstone Forest. Both appeared flighty as they demanded space to bask in the sunshine and would occasionally duel with each other by spiralling upwards into the trees.
No apologies for including another post dedicated to the elegant Queen of Spain Fritillary. Yet another hot and sunny day and the butterflies were performing in Brighstone Forest. The location mentioned in my last post only produced one very flighty Queen so a walk along the forest track on the spot where this fritillary was first sighted over a week ago yielded another.This individual however proved to be more cooperative by regularly perching on flowers and grasses. Along that track several Grayling were seen.
