Wood Whites

Second brood Sussex Wood Whites are on the wing. Revisiting the wood today we were not sure what to expect. The clearing where I had seen them before was well overgrown and if they were there they were keeping a low profile. Fortunately we found five or six specimens along the main rides and were able to get some reasonable pictures.

This is a delicate little butterfly that does not fly very far or very fast, so it should be easy to photograph. Unfortunately it has a habit of dropping down into the long grass, where it is difficult to get a clear shot and if it does settle out on top of a plant, it is so light that it gets blown all over the place.

The males of this second brood have smaller and darker markings on wing tips. You can see the spots showing through the wings on the pictures below but you never get to see the spots. This is a butterfly that always settles with its wings closed.

I only found three first brood butterflies so this second brood was an improvement in numbers particularly as we did a fairly limited search.

This proved to be an unusual butterflying day. We found our Wood Whites but were then surprised to see large numbers of Silver-washed Fritillaries. I would estimate forty to fifty. Unfortunately a bit late in the life cycle as they were all a bit worn and tatty. 

Silver-washed Fritillary - past its best

We then visited two good butterfly sites in Tillets Fields and Houghton Forest, where we would normally see lots of butterflies, and could find very little flying. Perhaps midday and early afternoon were too hot even for the butterflies but it did seem like a bit of an anomaly, when good numbers have been found at most other sites.