Silver-washed Fritillary

Late afternoon and Sue suggested going for a walk to make the most of the sunshine. I managed to talk her out of walking to the shops and instead we headed off to Houghton Forest to have a look for the butterflies. Dave had already tipped me off to the Marbled Whites and I was hoping to see Silver-washed Fritillaries and White Admirals as well.

The Marbled Whites were easy to find and photograph although none were really posing for a closed wing shot which I always think shows them at there best.

Marbled Whites

Marbled White

The only closed wing shot I managed

Sue is always a lot happier chasing after butterflies in the summer than being out in the middle of winter birding. She uses the little Canon SX50 and gets some good pictures which I always find a bit annoying given how difficult I find that camera to use.

The real find of the day was the Silver-washed Fritillary. I had seen one the day before but it was on a high speed fly through in the lower canopy and could not really be claimed as a first sighting. This one was nectaring on brambles but unfortunately was staying at the back of the thicket making it difficult to get a decent shot. These pictures are taken on a 400mm lens.

Silver-washed Fritillary

There were a range of other butterflies around as well, Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small Heath, Brimstone, Speckled Wood, and one White Admiral although I did not get to see it.

Ringlet

Small Heath 

and a really tatty Grizzled Skipper still hanging on

Grizzled Skipper 

Turtle Dove

Well, it may not be the best picture ever of a Turtle Dove but I came home very happy that I had seen it and managed to get a picture. The description on SOS of within 100 yards of the Whiteways car park was accurate but I was just not sure which direction to walk in. Fortunately once you got away from the traffic it was not difficult to pick up the purring call. There were at least two birds calling at the same time and I think there was probably a third close by.

Seeing them, however, was a different problem. They were high up in the trees and were very difficult to pick out. I stood there for three hours waiting for a picture. Three other birders came and went whilst I waited, happy with the glimpses they got as the bird relocated to hide in even denser foliage. But, there was no way that I was going to leave without a record shot.

The only picture opportunity available, was on the very top of a tall tree, when the bird made a short display flight and returned to a perch. I could only get the picture direct into the sun and it only did the display flight twice (from that tree) in the time I watched. Fortunately the second time the sun was behind a cloud

Turtle Dove

Last year the best I could manage was a view of the Pagham North Wall bird from about three hundred yards and a picture where it was difficult to even pick out the shape of the bird from the noise in the shot. This was a big improvement but after waiting a couple of years for a picture, I fully expect to look out into the garden tomorrow morning and see one sitting in our pear tree.