Silver Washed Fritillary

I was taken by my neighbours to a wonderful, secret woodland location, just a couple of miles from here, this morning in the hope of seeing Silver Washed Fritillary butterflies, and I was not disappointed.

The weather was perfect and within a few minutes we spotted the first of this fantastic species, skimming over the bracken. The show continued with groups of up to four males flying fast and occasionally settling on the bramble flowers and bracken fronds.

It was the first time I had seen this, the largest of our native species of fritillary butterfly. I managed only a handful of shots worthy of blipping and this was my favourite as on the underwing the streaks of silver colour that give it it's name are just visible - along with the bright rust upper wing with distinctive black markings.

This area of woodland is on the side of quite a steep west facing valley in the Chiltern Hills. It is privately owned by a gentleman who is a very keen conservationist and has spent many years improving the habitat to encourage a wide variety of wild life.

We also walked to a small meadow at the edge of the wood where we also saw a Clouded Yellow butterfly - another species to add to my 2014 local list.
This is a migratory species that breeds here during the summer, but very few manage to survive the winter here.