Heath Fritillary

It was half past nine and it had been a fantastic morning. Six orchids down including two life ticks and I was on a roll. The only problem was that I had not planned for that level of success and I was having to improvise on where to visit next. On top of that the clouds were starting to build and rain was threatened.

I decided to visit Blean Wood to look for the Heath Frittilary butterflies. A few years earlier this had been the site of one of my most memorable butterflying days. We had walked into a glade and finding one Heath Fritillary had rushed to get the cameras out before it disappeared. The sun then came out and a brown carpet of pristine Heath Fritillaries rose out of the grass surrounding us. Too many to count but certainly many hundreds.

Today the same glade was still delivering although, being at the start of the flight period, only half a dozen were showing. This has to be one of the easiest butterflies to photograph. They don't fly far or fast, they are not easily flushed, and they are very obliging in giving closed and open wing views. I had it in mind to visit a site near Eastbourne on the way home to photograph the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and that would be a challenge of another order.

Heath Fritillary

Heath Fritillary

Heath Fritillary

Heath Fritillary

Female Brimstone on Common Cow Wheat

And a few other butterfly shots taken recently. Closed wing shot of a Duke of Burgundy, they usually bask with wings open; open wing shot of a Holly Blue, they usually bask with wings closed; and a Wall Brown, unusual in that I have seen so many of them this year.

Duke of Burgundy

Holly Blue

Wall

Still only a quarter past eleven, enough material gathered for three blogs, but the rain had now set in. I went home via Park Heath Corner hoping for a break in the clouds and a chance to photograph the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary but it was not to be. Still, it's always worth leaving something for another day.

Heath Fritillary

I was in the Canterbury area on Monday so took the opportunity to look for a couple rarities that hold territory in Kent. The first was the Heath Fritillary which can be found in Blean Wood.

Two years ago we visited on the 17th June and must have got the timing just right. We saw hundreds of them and most in good condition. This year I was two and a half weeks later. I thought, that with the seasons generally running a bit later this year, I would be alright, but it wasn't to be. I only had about a dozen sightings and most of those were in poor condition.

Fortunately I did find a couple of decent specimens.

Ringlets obviously come out a couple of weeks later than the Heath Frits as the wood was full of them and this time all in good condition.

A few Large Skippers

And a nice grass moth probably Chrysoteuchia culmella

My other target was the Willow Emerald Damselfly and I had no luck at all with that. Probably two weeks too early for that one.

Heath Fritillary

The Heath Fritillary is one of the rarest butterflies in the country with only a few colonies in Kent, Essex and on the moors down in the South West. I had never seen one before so success today would be a life tick for me. The reports from our destination, Blean Wood, had been promising but we were uncertain as to what we would find. On the way down we agreed that we would be happy to just see one and more than happy if we could get a record shot.

Rather than heading for the usual location of the car park in East Blean Woods we were following directions that Dave had received from a contact down in Kent. We parked up and headed off into the wood to find the glade we were looking for. It was overcast and cool and there were no butterflies flying but as we stepped into the glade I spotted one on some Cow Wheat. I took a couple of quick snaps and Dave was in a bit of a panic to get his camera out before I spooked it. It was only then that we realised that they were all around us and that you actually had to be careful to ensure that you didn't step on them.

Heath Fritillary on Cow Wheat

The report we had was of forty of the Fritillary in the glade. Our estimate was for a lot more than this. Then the sun came out and suddenly there was a blanket of butterflies dancing about six inches above the glade. We must have just been lucky with the timing of our visit. I cannot remember ever having seen so many butterflies in such a small space.

In good condition

Mating

So plentiful were the Heath Fritillaries that the major highlight of the morning was when a Meadow Brown and then a Ringlet flew through the glade.

Ringlet

This was a truly memorable days butterfying and helped quell that nagging feeling that I should really be in Ashdown Forest getting a better picture of the Short-toed Eagle. With the Ringlet this brings the butterfly total to thirty two for the year. It looks as though we will make our target of forty with some too spare.

One final picture, I think it must be of a female Meadow Grasshopper. My first thoughts were that it was too small to be this but I cannot find any other alternative and reading up on them they do have a size range from 23mm down to 10mm.