Goldie M

[Vince Massimo]

Great find, Goldie . I have never seen pictures of this aberration outside of a museum database.

I have sent you a PM regarding loading them onto the Species-Specific Album.

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

I went up to Gates Barrow because the weather was so nice and to my amazement i took these Photo's of a "White Pearl Bordered Fritilary"

What an amazing find - well done! Did you mean Gait Barrows? If not, where is "Gates Barrow"?

Cheers,

- Pete

[Goldie M]

I meant Gait Barrows Pete, I was so excited when I saw the Butterfly I couldn't wait to get it into my Diary, so I spelt it wrong I can tell you exactly where it was flying if you wish ? I'm not much good at Maps etc, but if you know GB well you'll know exactly where I mean Ehwn I describe it. Goldie

[Pete Eeles]

Thx! No worries - I just wanted to make sure that I "tweeted" this incredible find for the correct site without being too specific, for obvious reasons.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Goldie M]

Cheers everybody, it's strange isn't it when you actually see something like this you just don't believe it. I thought at first it was a white Butterfly, it was the man who was there before us with his Binoculars that said it was a PBF, I said no such thing (to my shame) He said ,"it will come back it's been around a few times." Image my delight when it posed for me then we saw this other one which I thought had slightly more colour and that landed right in front of me. So that was the sequence really , off they'd fly then back again, I felt very privileged to just be there with them.Goldie M

[IAC]

Hi Goldie,
I have not posted on here for a while but those WPBFs....incredible!!! Congrats....you must have been jumping through hoops!!...

Iain.

[Goldie M]

I was, jumping through Hoops Iain, I've just posted them all in Species section Vince, hope I've done it right, You know me also hope there's not too many, I do like to do the same pics at differant distances. Goldie

[Vince Massimo]

Thanks Goldie . I have thinned them out a little and will have another edit later. You definately posted the best ones in you personal diary. I was hoping there might be an underside shot lurking in there somewhere, but alas no.

Just to avoid any confusion, these are Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries (ab.alba).

Vince

[Pauline]

Just picked this up. Amazing find Goldie and well photographed too. My hands would have been shaking too much to get any sort of photo! Congratulations.

[Goldie M]

Thank you Pauline, if I said I knew what the Butterfly was when I was taking my Pics i would have been shaking, I just didn't realise it's significance, until a man in the car park said to get it down loaded to Butterfly Conservation when I got home, that made me really excited. I just enjoyed watching them fly, I knew one was slightly differant but I'll be honest, I thought it was the colour more than anything. I'm still not sure, I'll have to study them further.
Sorry Vince about the the undersides but as you can see, when it landed it's wings were hidden at times with the vegitation I just got the one good shot in. It spread it's wings out nearly has soon as it landed. I'm going to sit back now and have a shandy to celebrate Goldie M

[Willrow]

Absolutely thrilled to see such wonderful abberations, and you managed some very pleasing images too Goldie, a tremendous find, very well done. You've caused some great excitement on UK Butterflies.

I can see Gait Barrows being swamped by 'butterfly twitchers' now

Bill

[Wurzel]

Absolutely stunning images - that had to bd the most impressive butterfly this year/for ages:D

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Thanks Wurzel and Willrow, when we got to Gaits Barrow the car park was full then and some one had left the gate open which i don't think your supposed to,(because of the Deer). Every one had come to take Pic's of the Duke and the Slipper Orchids. The sun was in and out and the breeze cold, thats when we decided to give the Sun time to get everything warmed up, it was about 11.30 then, no sign of the Duke.
We took our time, taking pic's of the Dingy Skipper on the way. Then we saw them along with normal SPBF and PBF, I just started to take pics of them all We went back to the car for lunch, it was hot by then, then we went looking for the Duke and this time he was there. They've opened up another area for him, got rid of bushes etc, this one is also cordoned off and to come away from the Whites for awhile, I took this pic of him. Thanks for all your comments but I think I was lucky, right Place ,right time ,as they say Goldie

[Rosalyn]

How happy you must be. Well done

[David M]

Great find, Goldie . I have never seen pictures of this aberration outside of a museum database.

I'm surprised Piers hasn't commented on this. He's often on the active users' board but he hasn't posted for a while.

I'm sure this type of thing would be right up his street.

[essexbuzzard]

A truely stunning find Goldie,the find of the year so far! SPBF are fairly common in Cornwall but i've never seen anything remotely like this!
I've never been to Gait Barrows,i'm jealous and i really must get up there. I still have sooo much to do,so many places to go!

[Goldie M]

Thanks again everybody, I feel like a balloon at present thats been deflated, I was so excited I couldn't wait to get the pictures on my computer, now it's house work and back to normal Sunday is going to be a bright day here they say, if I can nudge my husband into going again I will
I've stil got all my photo's to do from my two weeks holiday in Dorset and Devon yet, it must be my lucky year because I got Pictures of the Small Blue and the Marsh Fritilary, Butterflies I'd never seen before, the latter on the last day of my holiday Goldie

[Goldie M]

I went to Spring Wood Whalley on Sunday it was a lovely day. We were too busy to go back to GB we'd to clean our Caravan and store it again a job we kept putting off Whlist there I took these photo's of a Large White which was being rather put on by GVW , either that , or it was a case of miss Identity Goldie

[Goldie M]

Well I've finally sorted out my holiday photo's . We went first to Dorset the third week in May the fourth week we spent in Devon. After all the tales I'd heard about the BF along the Dorset coast I couldn't wait to get going
We were near Lulworth Cove and thats where I found my first of the year Small Heath, Dingy Skipper, Brown Argus, Holly Blue,Adonis,Pics not too good of this one it wouldn't keep still for me Oh! and I chased a Wall for the week as well no luck,( I hit a brick Wall) with that one you might say :lol:We went to Portland and in the Quarry there, "Broadcroft" it was called I saw my first Small Blue, that really put the Icing on the cake for the first week.
The second week in North Devon, I was lucky if I caught sight of a white never mind a Marsh Fritilary, I took a picture of what I hope was a Common Blue, very pale colour so I'm not sure of that. That was at "Braunton Burrows" I've included it with my Pics. We were due to leave on the Friday so thought we'd give a place called "Knowstone" a visit, it's on the 361 which leads right onto the M5 MW. To my delight we spotted two are three and I managed another first, it couldn't get any better I thought but it did when I got back and saw the SPBW, what a great three weeks I've had.
When I was up at Gaits Barrow 4th July, the same time as i took the SPBW I also saw this one, it's body is green compared to the others, not sure if it's a PBF, don't think it's a SPBF any Ideas Goldie

[Goldie M]

Went back to Gaits Barrow, the weather was cloudy all the time, it looked good when we set off but when we arrived it was very dull and stayed so all day. We saw a large Skipper and one SPBF but nothing it seemed was keen to fly so we moved on to find "Myers Allotment "a new place opened recently for High Brown Fritilary and Dark Green Frits also PBF, SPBF. We'd never been before so had to find it which we did eventually. It's too soon for the HBF and DGF, and with nothing flying,we were happy to note our find to visit another day.
I've still been looking for Green Hair streaks which have aluded me up to now, a man we met said they were finished now, according to my book they can go on until August, so I'll assume they can and keep looking May be he means the first batch. Goldie