A washing of silver.....

When I was in my teens I used to have a passion for lepidoptera, and I once owned an extensive collection of pinned specimens. That was many quite a few years ago now, and coming back to my first love all these years later I now take nothing but images of the beautiful insects I find (I guess if photography had been as advanced, back in the day, then I might have done the same then).
As a teenager I always dreamed of catching and setting a fritillary, and 5 years ago, (when I started this photographic mission), this, the handsome Silver Washed Fritillary was the very first fritillary I saw!
Sussex is blessed with a lot of ancient woodland with good woodland rides, the favourite haunt of these large, fast magestic beauties.
They are strong and very fast flyers, but if you are lucky (and patient) you can catch one happily nectaring on a bramble flower, which seems to be their favourite food source.
I could have blipped the male I photographed with his wings open, but I decided instead to blip the female wings closed, not only because in my experience it is more difficult to get shots of the underside of the wings, but also because it is this 'silver washing ' pattern on the undersides of the wing that gives this butterfly it's common name.
I never tire of the beauty of our native butterflies, I hope you enjoy seeing them too!