Silver-washed fritillary

I'm afraid I've been absent for a few days, mostly due to pressure of work (though I will be back-blipping in the near future). Pete and I finally finished our major monitoring project on Sunday evening, and yesterday I just felt so tired that I just needed a day of chilling. Mind you, this became somewhat more literal than I anticipated. At Friday night's barbecue the freezer door had been left ajar,causing a major build up of ice, which had made it hard to shut. So I unexpectedly spent the afternoon defrosting the freezer!

This morning Pete and I went up to Bedford Purlieus, which we haven't visited for ages. The ponies were grazing the large glade, but fortunately they were very friendly, and didn't mind Rosie. It was somewhat overcast, but during the occasional sunny interval there were plenty of butterflies, including good numbers of silver-washed fritillaries, though I was slightly disappointed that there were no white-letter hairstreaks.

The silver-washed fritillary is one of the largest British butterflies and has a strong and powerful flight. The bright orange males patrol their territories and will come down to attack anything orange. This is a female, a somewhat more subtle shade altogether - not nearly as brash as the bold males.

This image was taken during a cloudy period, while she was perched on the soft purplish flowering head of a wood small-reed. As soon as the sun came out she was off again in search of nectar from the bramble blossom. I did get a picture of a male, feeding on hemp agrimony, but much preferred the understated colours in this!