The weather forecast was
promising today with some prolonged periods of sunshine predicted. When I arrived at Ketton it was still rather
cloudy but warm so I decided to go to the Yellow Bird’s-nest site first. I hadn’t walked to far when I saw my first butterfly,
a ringlet that was quickly followed by meadow brown and my first marbled white
of the year. The ground was much wetter
then when I was last here and it was not easy reaching the Yellow Bird’s-nest
plants and when I arrived there was clearly far less than the previous visit
and most were at least going over. I
walked back to the car via the Bee Orchids and counted twenty-two spikes with
some still in good condition. There were
plenty of butterflies but mainly ringlets, meadow browns and marble whites but
I had also seen a few small heaths and a single banded demoiselle and a
broad-bodied chaser. After getting back
to the car I continued into the other part of the quarry where there were more
ringlets, meadow browns and marbled whites and I did find a single well worn
common blue and several large skippers.
When I was in the bottom of the quarry I managed to get some nice photos
of several marbled whites feeding on a thistle but most of the butterflies were
quite mobile.
As I started to walk back an
obviously different butterfly approached a some speed and I recognised it as a
Silver-washed Fritillary. It shot by me
and was able to follow it a short distance and then just lost it. After a few minutes it returned but again it
disappeared again and this time without trace.
This was my first for the counties and it is very unusual as they are
not seen annually , although they have been seen at this site previously.
A Banded Demoiselle,
Broad-bodied Chaser and three Cinnabar moths were also seen.
Marbled White
Marbled White
Marbled White
Marbled White
Yellow Bird's-nest
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