A ray of sunlight through the dark skies

Though the clouds appeared laden with rain, I decided to chance my luck with a brief photographic sortie up on Cissbury Ring, and I'm glad I did. On first arriving, a saw a lone Meadow Brown flitting amongst the damp grass but little else for 30 minutes or so, then as the skies cleared briefly more and more butterflies started to emerge from their slumber. A Large Skipper, which at first appeared 'frozen' to the spot, obiliged well; then a Marbled White and some more Meadow Browns started to appear. I also bumped into Dave Alder (hope I have got the spelling right) who pointed out a few Dark Green Fritillaries which must have been sheltering from the rain deep amongst the long grass in the southern most ditch.These were far more obiliging individuals than those I saw during the high temperatures last Tuesday and I was pleased to be able to get some good close up shots. Some maybe a bit too close! Looking at the photo I took last week, I believe that all the individuals I saw today were males, whilst last Tuesday although I saw many males I also saw and photographed 1 female. I also saw an unidentified caterpillar (a Burnet moth I believe), and to complete the trip, a very battered Common Blue in the southern ditch and 2 Small Heaths on the southern slope back to the car.

Large Skipper Ochlodes venata

Male Dark Green Fritillaries Argynnis aglaja

 

 

Marbled White Melanargia galathea