Bentley Wood, pt 2

Below are some more images from Bentley Wood yesterday, including Her Majesty, the Purple Emperor.  This mythical butterfly is rare in England and even here at it's stronghold, is difficult to find.  We only saw four and were exceptionally lucky to see, let alone photo, a female sunning herself on a path.  For some reason, she did not want to move from the puddle, even when a tractor drove past.

Female Purple Emperor resting on the warm track at about 10am

Female Purple Emperor, video grab, courtesy of John Chapple.

Large Skipper, male, one of hundreds seen during the day.

Male Silver-washed Fritillary

Female Silver-washed Fritillary being shown interest from a male.

French fritillary's steal the show

This post is a summary of all the fritillary's that we saw over the last couple weeks here in the Dordogne / Bordeaux area of France.  The genus is easily the most common type of butterfly and to put it simply, they are everywhere.  They have dominated every day's sightings.  Glanville and Meadow Fritillary are the commonest.  The image above and below are Glanville's.

The majority of the shots were taken in farmland, near vineyards and virtually all beside the road in the numerous ditches and drains.  The French roads and highways are maintained differently to the UK.  Every road seems to have a drainage ditch which are left to nature.  The ditches are splashes of colourful flowers which in turn supports these stunning butterflies. 

Above:  Glanville Fritillary.  Below: Knapweed Fritillary

Meadow Fritillary above and lower three.

Small Pearl-bordered being shown some unwanted interest from a Silver-washed Fritillary.

Above and below: Spotted Fritillary.

Above and below: Silver-washed Fritillary.

All of the images were handheld.  Taken with the macro 105mm with VR constantly on.  Aperture used was F/10 or greater depending on available light.  Thanks to John Chapple for verifying the ID.  Any ID comments very welcome.

Silver-washed Fritillary's going about their chores

Silver-washed Fritillary's seem to be common near woodland clearings here in south west France.  We saw about 15 in one area. Several couples were flirting and courting together and eventually I managed to photo these two completely oblivious to my presence.  We saw at least six other species of fritillary and images of these will appear later on this blog.