Butterfly Bonanza

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With a hot day forecast I thought it would be a good idea to go out early butterfly watching so I parked up at Monks Wood just after 9am. I knew that silver washed fritillaries were now flying and had read reports of plenty of these and white admirals having been seen there. It wasnt long before I saw the first white admiral and then noticed a gentleman with camera and tripod standing staring at a particular patch of bramble further up the ride.  

I soon saw that there were a number of white admirals and silver washed fritillaries flying about and a few of them landed which enabled a few photographs.

There were also  large skippers,  numerous meadow browns and my first ringlet sighting of the year together with one red admiral. Surprisingly I didnt see any speckled wood which in fact I have not seen much of at all this year so far.

With Woodwalton Marsh being just a mile further on I drove on to see if I could achieve some photos of the marbled whites which had refused to oblige at Therfield Heath.  There were many flying and a number also stopped to nectar quite frequently.  The only other butterflies in the meadow were once again dozens of meadow browns, a large white and a few large skippers.




 
 Silver Washed Fritillary
 Silver Washed Fritillary

 White Admiral
 
 White Admiral

 
 Large Skipper

 Red Admiral

 Large White

 
Marbled White

  
Marbled White

 
Marbled White

 
Ringlet


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