Chris Winnick planned this walk to find Pearls, Small Pearls and Dukes but in the event the extraordinary spell of warm weather had brought everything on so quickly that the Pearls and Dukes had all but finished. However we were able to see the habitat management which has been going on over the past winters and also the cowslip plantings done in February/March this year to encourage the Dukes. We were lucky to see a solitary Duke wondering where all its friends had gone - it looked lonely and was much smaller than I had imagined it to be.
The first fritillary I managed to snap looked like a Pearl - I so wanted it to be - but on close examination of the photo later I was disappointed to find that it was a Small Pearl. However, later on a real Pearl was netted and when it was finally released it flew a short distance and then sat stunned on the ground long enough to be photographed before recovering its senses and flying away.
There were plenty of Small Pearls - one count was of fifteen and another estimate was of 16 or 17... but they were very elusive. This was my best shot
Out on the open ground were several Small Heaths, a few Northern Brown Argus
and some Dingy Skippers, some more dingy than others and quite tattered, but this one was in better repair than most
There was a multitude of moths and I captured a Clouded Buff and a Silver Y, along with two dragonflies: a broad bodied chaser and a four-spotted chaser
and a Mottled Umber Erannis defoliaria caterpillar which CallumMac identified for me.
It was a brilliant day and I was thrilled to have seen three more of the ten I missed last year!