Fritillary?

[Susie]

I saw one today in Sussex at a beautiful site that is stuffed with cowslips

[Pete Collins]

This morning I decided to do a 5-6 mile walk from home, specifically to include the area where I saw the Duke of Burgundy butterfly on Good Friday. I was a little concerned that it might be too windy for the butterflies, but I hoped I might get lucky as the actual habitat where I saw them was an old 'hollow way' (a drover's route that over the centuries had worn a groove in the hillside) and I thought it might give some shelter from the wind.

When I got to Whipsnade Downs, I took one such old path going downhill, then turned left and followed another one back up Bison Hill - this is where I'd seen the butterfly before. These two shots show the habitat - the banks either side had numerous Cowslips, amongst other flowers:

The path on Whipsnade Downs

Looking back down the path on Bison Hill

I spotted a Duke of Burgundy almost straight away! It was in a fairly breezy position, so I could only get a shot of the underside of the wings. It did try to spread its wings, but couldn't hold them fully open in the breeze.



But I soon came across another one, with its wings fully open. And then another ... and another ... and another! All told I saw at least seven or eight, and that's discounting sightings where I was probably seeing the same insect again.





It was brilliant, far better than I'd hoped for! And, like last time, I also saw Green Hairstreaks and Grizzled Skippers, three of each.

[Deb London]

Hi Pete, we had a quick trip to Bison Hill and saw the skippers and Green Hairstreaks. I only saw one butterfly that could have been a DoB. How would you say its size compared to the skippers, when seen in the field?

[Pete Collins]

Originally Posted by Deb London

Hi Pete, we had a quick trip to Bison Hill and saw the skippers and Green Hairstreaks. I only saw one butterfly that could have been a DoB. How would you say its size compared to the skippers, when seen in the field?

My impression is that the Duke of Burgundy is bigger than the Grizzled Skipper - when I first saw one I thought it was going to be a Small Copper, it's that sort of size I think.

[Deb London]

Ahh, I've never seen a Small Copper in my life. But it sounds like it's a bit bigger than a skipper, but a similar size. I could well have seen one.

Thanks for the information Pete.