A Butterfly at last... and what a good one!

What with the terrible weather I haven't braved it out with my camera for a long time; however, with a trip to see the in-laws down in Kent I decided to call in at East Blean Woods near Canterbury. Must have passed close to this place 50 times or so without realising that it is home to a small population of one of our rarest butterflies, the Heath Fritillary or Melitaea athalia by its latin name.

While conditions were almost perfect, I wasn't going to get that lucky and the wind played havoc with my photography to say the least. However I did manage a few shots that I was pretty pleased with. Please see my favourites below (please click on image to view at high resolution) - the last one demonstrates the difficulties I had but I quite like it nonetheless - feels a little dreamlike (nb I also rotated this 90 degrees anticlockwise as I prefered the composition). I think my UK list now stands at 46/59 species - as a child I have a memory of seeing a Swallowtail Caterpillar but I cannot confirm so have not included.