Dark Green Fritillaries at Newbough warren Anglesey June 30th 2014

Today i am going in search of Dark  Green Fritillaries  , there is a good site on the Island of Anglesey off the North Wales coast . So with  Mollster loaded in the car,  of we go :)     its looking a very warm sunny day , which might make it difficult to photograph them but they will at least be on the wing :)

After a 2 hour drive i arrive at Newbough car park , and decide to walk down towards the dunes firstly.

                                         There are plenty of wild Orchids in the clearings

 I have just spotted three Green Fritts :)   next to the main path  and i manage to get this open wing shot .

                                                                      and a Grayling

 Mol is getting restless so time to take her down to the beach, there is a slight problem though , dogs are not allowed on the beach at this time of year!    which is bloody stupid as its deserted!!!!!!!!!!!!
So i have to walk right down the coastline and around the headland to get to a dog friendly beach! 

                                    Around the boadwalk for no apparent reason ..................

                 and down the road side path amongst the buttercups which are looking lovely :)

 The path comes out next to the dunes by an almost deserted beach, the only people on it are walking to the peninsula to the lighthouse which is cut of by the incoming tide.

 i have made my way through the dunes and then the woods  which was not easy as there was no path!     we are high up on the headland and have to scramble down to the beach now!

                         Hurry up dad , i want to go in the sea Mollster is probably thinking!

After making our way down to the beach Mol is straight in after a stick i have found...............

The tide is coming in fast and have to be careful not to get cut off as there is not much of the beach where we have to climb back up.  After 20 mins its time to go and find some more butterflies .
The tide is almost across the narrow part cutting off the island very soon , we are now up top and walking back through the forest .



 Good view from up here , i have just noticed 2 people with dogs on the beach  as a ranger drives along and shouts at them   lol     its ok having a dog ban in summer hols when kids will be on the beach but its stupid midweek at this time!   Mutter Mutter LOL

 Back now up on the rough ground behind the dunes in search of butterflies , i have tied Mol to the gate so i can chase the Fritillaries :)

          Got one feeding !  Yay      it has taken ages , they are very flighty and i cant get near them

                                                                        a close view

                                                    Open wings nicely, so beautiful :)

             One last look before we go, its clouded over now and the butterflies have vanished!

                                                                   the end of a great day

Arnside Knott july 21st 2012 Scotch argus time

It was time for my last trip to Arnside knott this year , the Target species was the rare Scotch Argus , only found in a few locations in Scotland and in Cumbria.  they might be just starting to emerge, so since the weather is looking very good for a change, ie dry warm and sunny  Shock Horror!   its worth the trip.
the Cumbrian fells are looking good this morning!

to start a quick look down on the lower tiers to see if any High browns or Dark Green fritillaries are showing , down on the large lower level there were a few old looking Dark greens and not much else.
 This is a female, just fading slightly on the forewings.

                        so a walk through to the next field and i found a mating pair of DGs

 

Time to take a look at Heathwaite meadow , a wonderful area full of wild flowers, and numerous insect species .  Northern Brown Argus usually in good numbers.  but not today :(   never mind, i managed to shoot them last two visits, but look at the flowers :)

        There were numerous tiny Hylas bees, ( i think)  really struggled to shoot them , they were just too active, this is the best i could get.  about 5mm in length , shot with mpe-65 macro lens.

                                                                   and a small skipper :)

making my way round the knott to have a look near the top, where a large patch of thistle flowers might have a few nectoring butterflies.

near the top i found a few common blues feeding , i have seen very few of these this year which is quite unusual as they are usually fairly common.

                                                 a meadow brown in the undergrowth :)

                                                               and a camouflaged Grayling :)

             a couple of views looking from near the top of the Knott looking towards Cumbria

 Most of the thistle flowers had gone over so there were very few feeding butterflies to be seen, but did manage this Dark Green image.

Then a very dark butterfly flew past me quickly!  a Scotch Argus Yay!!!    i had to chase it down a steep embankment , it kept stopping for a few seconds before taking flight again.   i ended up chasing it down, around and up the hill three times before i eventually managed this image!  i was knackered by this time.   Not sure if the dam thing was playing games  lol

after all this i sat down!   and then i noticed a pair of speckled woods sitting on a low conifer, really like the composition i got in this frame :)

Then another Scotch Argus flew past , another chase was on the cards, and i was already tired after the last one!!!!!!!!     but it had other ideas and just settled down on a leaf long enough for me to get my final image of the day.   perfect:)   they look stunning when freshly emerged like this one, so dark and velvety.

the end of a good, but difficult day.  always a special place to visit, will be next year before i visit again now.

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