The pictures is pretty awful but it's good enough for a positive identification.
Silver Washed Fritillary at Willsbridge Mill
Silver Washed Fritillary at Willsbridge Mill
Willsbridge Mill is one of the Avon Wildlife Trust's sites. About 20 acres astride Siston Brook on the edge of suburbia, it is my local patch. I've never seen any fritillaries at all in the site, and I'm not sure if a mere 20 acres, of which maybe 2/3 is woodland, is capable of supporting them. So I was rather surprised and pleased to see this male SWF feeding on buddliea there this morning. I would guess it's a vagrant from a colony nearby, so I shall have to endeavour to find out where it came from.
The pictures is pretty awful but it's good enough for a positive identification.
The pictures is pretty awful but it's good enough for a positive identification.
Another wandering Silver-washed today at another AWT reserve, Tucking Mill south of Bath. This one was nectaring on hemp-agrimony by the side of a path; there is plenty of woodland within a mile or so, but little in the immediate area where the butterfly was.
Plenty of Common Blue males chasing each other on the reserve.
Plenty of Common Blue males chasing each other on the reserve.