www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I went to Monkwood, Worcestershire yesterday for the 2nd time in a week (the 308 from Worcester gets me there in 30 minutes) and this time I saw heaps of White Admirals. Even though the weather was a little showery, there was a kaleidoscope of butterflies...I counted 16 species: White Admirals, Red Admirals, Small, Large and Essex Skippers, Marbled Whites,Ringlets, Meadows Browns, Large, Small and Green-veined whites, Peacocks, Commas, Speckled Woods, my first Gatekeeper of the year and to the delight of my boyfriend, his first ever Purple hairstreak (mine was last Friday). It seems churlish to be grumpy but I was also hoping for a Silver-Washed Fritillary. Melanie

Sounds like you had a super day Melanie, incidentally I spoke to a gent about Monk Wood while on a visit to Oversley (Warwickshire) on Saturday, he spoke in glowing terms about the wood and mentioned that Silver-washed Fritillary are reasonably common there, so it appears you were just a bit unlucky on that front, but never mind there's always another day!

Bill