Marsh Fritillary - Euphydryas aurinia

The little colony in Chambers Farm Wood, Lincolnshire. If visiting try to stick to the worn paths as pairs busy mating can be hard to see at first and the females are very sluggish when still full of eggs.

 

Robin

The friendly Robin at the main gate at North Cave Wetlands. Photo taken with a macro lens!

Yellow, red and black at North Cave Wetlands

A walk in the late afternoon sunshine at YWT North Cave Wetlands. Lots of birds and still a few summer migrants to arrive.

 

End of Summer Butterflies

Comma and Small Tortoiseshell on the Verbena.  Smartest Commas of the year on the wing in Autumn.

A tale of two blues.......with tails

Lang's Short-tailed Blue (Leptotes pirithous) on the left and Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus) on the right

Searching the outskirts on foot near our holiday rental in Marseillan, South of France didn't reveal much in the way of diverse wildlife.  There were plenty of Black Redstarts in the graveyard and the odd huge raptor overhead. The one scrubby field I found did on closer inspection have lots of blue butterflies particularly around the edges.  Many turned out to be nothing more exotic than Common Blue and Brown Argus though I was pleased to identify Lang's short-tailed Blue as well. It was only on returning home and uploading my pics that I discovered I also had photos of Long-tailed Blue, which was nice! They do look superficially similar. Plenty of Mallow Skipper on the wing too.



Long-tailed Blue above

Lang's short-tailed Blue below


Lang's short-tailed Blue, wings open

Red-veined Darter

Quite a few around on our recent holiday in France though they are not uncommon visitors to the UK. Very active in the sunshine and seen more often away from water whilst Small Pincertail nearly always seen by any running water.

Silver-studded Blues at Prees Heath, Shropshire

Female underside

I attended a very interesting Flora Locale course last week - lowland heath restoration at Prees Heath in Shropshire. The course was run by Stephen Lewis of Butterfly Conservation and Phil Putwain of Ecological Restoration Consultants Ltd.  In short the heath was turned into an airfield during the last war and following the war the land was turned over to agriculture and improved, mainly for potatoes.  The Silver-studded Blues who are heavily reliant on heather and a black ant population had managed to cling on in the fragments of remaining heathland.  It was extremely interesting to learn how the heathland had been restored and the constant challenges faced in maintaining the infertile soil for the heathers. Prees Heath is maintained principally for the Silver-studded and it was great to see good numbers though we were present just after peak emergence.


Male topside showing distinctive "lead blue" colouration



Female topside



Prees Heath. A less Heathery bit but showing the restored WW2 building.



Silver studs