Silver-washed Fritillary

A great day for butterfly spotting. We toddled over to Bookham Common this afternoon and came away with nine species identified and photographed, two of which were new to both of us. That's why I've blipped the Silver-washed fritillary here (one of the two). The first ten here were all photographed today. Species spotted were: Comma, Red Admiral, White Admiral, Green veined white, Holly Blue, Silver-washed fritillary, Peacock, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper. Gill says she saw ringlet too, but that one escaped the camera. Sadly, the one we were really after, The Purple Emperor, eluded us. They are found here.

In fact, after reading up on it after the visit, we've found that Great Bookham is a good spot for Purple Emperors, best time of year the first ten days of July and best time for seeing them is in the mornings (we went in the afternoon). They tend to gather around the tops of certain trees known as master trees. Gill is eager to go back tomorrow with the binoculars.

We'd gone with the intention of finding some dragonflies. I'd photographed some by our pond today and wanted something bigger. Getting one in flight wasn't easy.