Arnside Knott Butterflies pt 2 july 3rd

My second visit to Arnside knott to shoot the beautiful fritillaries . Hopefully might see my first High Brown of the season, but weather has still been cold so not holding my breath!   it looking quite misty but is forecast to warm up considerably which is just what the butterflies need to fly :)
The view looking towards the cumbrian fells shrouded in mist.

I start off walking up the shale path towards the area where i was shooting the small Pearl Bordered fritts the previous week.  Grayling should be out now, amazing camouflage they have and sit on the shale soaking up any warmth , almost straight away i spot one sitting on the rock, my first of the year. i could spend ages watching them , they have so much character ( for a butterfly anyhow! ) flitting between rocks changing there wing angle to face the sun.

i search all the usual bracken looking for High Browns but only Dark Greens are flying , thistle flowers give a good nectar supply so those areas the best to concentrate on.  a very damp bumble bee is first subject i shoot!

Moving up to the top of the Knott there is a large abundance of thistle, with plenty of Dark Green Fritts and Grayling  all feeding , i must say i have never seen a Grayling feeding before so spent quite a long time watching and shooting them:)

i then noticed an odd looking Dark Green frittilary , i chased it all over the place before getting this image , an aberration where one wing is almost white , with no colour! very odd.

then a female Dark Green , slightly larger than the males with white spots around the wing edges.

there is a steep shale scree  nearby which looks very promising for High Brown with tall trees all around

 but after quite a long time i have only spotted Dark Greens . but i did find a really beautiful jumping spider ,about 4 -5 mm in length ,  they are so cute with their big eyes.   time for the canon MPE-65 macro lens

a nice view from here , but really need to find a High Brown, there must be one here somewhere!

I make my way down to the opposite side of the Knott where i saw my first ever High Brown fritillary last year so i know its a good area.   And would you believe it, A High Brown straight away!   newly emerged this morning by the look of it. absolutely stunning.

i follow this one and make the most of a pristine specimen , taking quite a few images on different surroundings.perched on the shale really shows off the colours well :)

and on a white thistle flower, what a superb butterfly :)

after this shoot the cloud came over and the light levels dropped , i found a Dark Green perched up which happily sat for over 15 minutes while it had its picture taken .  you can see it is very similar to the High Brown, but the 3 rd spot on the fore wing is off line in the HB , more central in the DG. and of course the HB has spots on the rear under wing , which are clearly visible in the above image.


                                                              Dark Green Fritillary

What a super couple of hours i have just had , now its time to take a look at Heathwait meadow to find a few Northern Brown Argus .  through the gate and make my way around to the meadow.

And here is where i found these tiny butterflies , it is quite windy so really struggled to shoot these images , they are definitely not sharp enough , much more detail should be showing.

the end of another superb day on Arnside Knott , a really special place , except for one thing!

Ticks!!!!!!!!!!!!

                          images shot with canon 5d2, 100mmLmacro & mpe-65 macro lens