After leaving Sand Point, I headed for Bin Combe, a valley on Exmoor not far from Minehead. I arrived at 1420hrs and spent 3 hours there (although due to the terrain over an hour of that was taken up by walking down to the site and then struggling back up).
This is not a location for the faint hearted - on the National Trust website it is described as "extreme butterflying", and that is a description that I would support, given the difficulty of the terrain and the complete lack of any human-friendly pathways.
At the beginning of the day I had thought it highly likely that I would see Glanville Fritillaries at Sand Point but that Heath Fritillaries in this locality would be a long shot. That was the case for a good 3/4 of an hour, until I descended the steep bank (slipping once and putting my hand in gorse to try and break my fall). I suddenly noticed a Wall Brown-like butterfly several metres below me. I knew that this wasn't Wall territory so I made my way further down almost to the bottom of the Combe, whereupon I saw not one, but several Heath Fritillaries flying amongst the bracken. They were constantly active, and at this point I became aware of a handful of Green Hairstreaks that were in flight in the same area.
The hillside was extremely steep, and any attempt to ascend was a 'hold onto a firm piece of vegetation' job. I noticed a few more Heaths above me now, and to the right there was a fairly level piece of land, so I climbed onto it and as the sun went behind a cloud, a Heath Fritillary decided to remain in situ for me to get close to.
After spending about 40 minutes around this area I decided that since I was at the bottom of the hill I would make my way back at the lowest level aside the stream. This paid dividends, as about 200m further along there were a few more individuals until their presence abruptly halted as soon as the terrain forced me to go sharply upwards back towards the upper heathland.
So, two distinct colonies were seen, each covering no more than 100m in length and separated by about 200m of terrain from which they were absent. The first colony lower down contained 15-20 individuals whilst the second had about half a dozen.
It never ceases to amaze me just how specialised certain butterflies can be. These Heath Fritillaries are obviously clinging on to a tiny fragment of the environment, yet even within that environment they congregate in a ridiculously small area; yet where they DO congregate they can be seen in numbers.
Details of the site can be seen here:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w- ... _combe.pdf
It's a tough undertaking, but this species clearly thrives in pockets of this site and at the moment they all appear to be fresh and barely blemished.
The full tally of butterflies seen was:
1. Small Heath 80-120
2. Heath Fritillary 20-25
3. Green Veined White 15-25
4. Green Hairstreak 5
5. Small Copper 2
6. Orange Tip (probably my last of the year) 1
I thought I'd never get a photo till the sun suddenly went behind a cloud and this one remained still for a good 3 or 4 minutes
This one seemed to have a deformed antenna
This one was in the smaller colony which, thankfully, was found on fairly level terrain
The undersides, as ever, are the defining feature.
This one was most obliging
It was only after uploading this onto my PC that I noticed these two Heaths had a gatecrasher!
This was the main hotspot, though it was hard to reach and difficult to negotiate your way out of.