Arnside Knott pt2

Arnside Knott is a limestone hill , at around 500 feet above sea level and is covered with species rich limestone grassland and mixed woodland. Surrounded by water on 3 sides .The site attracts a variety of insects and is especially renowned for butterflies. There are outstanding views from the summit to the Lake District and Morecambe Bay.


The next species to find at arnside was the small pearl bordered fritillary,Boloria selene.  although  it was a bit late in the season for them,  hopefully i could find a few still around.
they like areas of open heather ,woodland glades and clearings.  near the top of the knott is a large open area facing north which looked perfect for them.
the area in the top right hand corner is where i found my first ever small pearl bordered, another new species ticked off the list for 2011.

Here is my first shot taken

Then by luck found one perched on a grass stem!  and managed with some difficulty to get a side on shot

I then watched a female egg laying which was great , but could not get into a position to photograph her. moving on i followed one of the small paths and came across a high brown frittilary feeding !

Closely followed by another small pearl bordered feeding on heather.  this shot shows how beautifully marked the under wings are .

I then decided to move over to the large area below the car park to find more high brown fritillarys, this area of braken is set out in three terraces and is the best place to see the high browns.

This is the view from the second middle terrace

Down here i found quite a few dark green fritillarys , but found it very difficult to tell the high browns apart without seeing the underwings .

Dark green fritillary

and with beautifull backlighting

and a high brown as a comparison

down on the lower terrace in the more open areas i found several common blues which appeared to be in prestine condition, they are a beautifull species when viewed up close.  they were feeding on ragwort flowers which does make a colourfull background in the images .

all shots taken with canon 5d2 and 100mm Macro 2.8 L.

ARNSIDE ADVENTURES WILL CONTINUE WITH THE WOOD ANT STORY!