Ah well, Wurzel, it takes all sorts...
Monday 6th July. With a sunny morning forecast, I ventured further afield again, heading down to Bookham. Definitely a good idea, as summer woodland butterflies were in full swing. Sheltered sunlit patches of flowering bramble (with a few tall thistles) were the places to be, and I found several of these. Silver-washed Fritillaries, White Admiras and Commas rather monopolised the action, with a sprinkling of other species, Purple Hairstreaks being notable among them. I saw a number of these butterflies low down and nectaring on the brambles and was able to point them out to a couple who had never seen one before (and had better views than me in the end!).
Others in the supporting cast...
Commas were everywhere, and frequently tangled with the SWF the males of which take an interest in anything orange (just in case).
To be fair, this third one was unusually large and near enough matched the smaller SWF males in size. That's a substantial post it's sitting on.
I saw my first White Admirals here on 2nd June, so most of those seen were showing signs of wear now and I suspect many were female (I did see a few flying around honeysuckle in the shade, which also points at this). However, what they lacked in condition they made up for in approachability.
Both aspects applied to the unusual "Black Admiral" that dropped by at one point. A great pity not to have encountered this one when it was new.
![WA(BA)2 060720.JPG (4.27 MiB) Viewed 764 times alongside a "normal" one](./files/thumb_9839_7ece2f3c4682dda6059aab9b559ade98)
- alongside a "normal" one
![WA(BA)1 060720.JPG (1.8 MiB) Viewed 764 times the worse for wear, sadly](./files/thumb_9839_feda5f8ba266eee456faf5cad9cc6b89)
- the worse for wear, sadly
Silver-washed Fritillaries emerged a while after the White Admirals this year, and many of those seen looked pretty fresh (especially the females). However, to avoid overloading this post, I shall continue with the SWF in a new one.
Dave