Tuesday 28 June 2016

High Brown Fritillary on Dartmoor, June 27th 2016

A warm and mostly cloudy day with occasional sunny spells saw us heading off to Dartmeet on Dartmoor for a walk. We parked up in the Badgers Holt car park and strolled off downriver along the Dart, enjoying the song of yellowhammer, chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap along the way.

I hoped to see some insect life especially during the sunny spells we were experiencing at times and I wasn't disappointed.

Beautiful demoiselles were very obvious along the river bank and surrounding vegetation with females easily out numbering the males and I managed to get some lovely views (if not the best photos).

Male Beautiful Demoiselle

 Female Beautiful Demoiselle

 Male Beautiful Demoiselle

Male Beautiful Demoiselle

A green tiger beetle gave some amazing views too - it flew off for a short distance during a cloudy interval when the temperature noticeably dropped and it seemed to run out of steam allowing close approach in a usually skittish insect.

 Green Tiger Beetle

 Green Tiger Beetle

Green Tiger Beetle

A golden ringed dragonfly allowed a quick photo before flying off and a dark skimmer type dragonfly flew by but never appeared again.

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Butterflies were on the wing too with some nice views of 2 green hairstreaks, a large white, a speckled wood, a meadow brown and a peacock.

 Green Hairstreak

Green Hairstreak

Best of all though was a high brown fritillary which I managed to get a few record shots of as it nectared on bramble flowers. I first caught a brief view of it flitting about looking very smart and bright orange but it quickly moved off and out of sight. Initially I thought it was a silver washed fritillary but quickly realised it was either a high brown or a dark green fritillary. I found it again a few minutes later when I managed to ID it as a high brown fritillary and get a few record shots of it before it again flew off and out of sight and I never saw it again. A very nice find though and very pleasing too.

 High Brown Fritillary - showing indented and noticeably small third spot on upper forewing

High Brown Fritillary - zooming in shows the characteristic row of rust-red spots with silver centres on the underwing

Heading home and it had become a lot more cloudy and we stopped off at The Two Bridges Hotel for a belly busting but delicious afternoon tea before driving home via my workplace to visit my sister-in law who continues with yet more ups and downs in her current treatment.


No comments:

Post a Comment