High winds the previous two days held me back from a return trip to the Wyre Forest to see the freshly emerged Small Pearl-bordered Fritiallary butterflies. But with a warm day forecast I made sure I set the alarm early which enabled me to get parked up at around 7.30am. This species are know for becoming active very quickly so I was keen to get some quality images as they emerged from their roost.
Lloyd Evans had the same idea so at least there was two of us looking amongst the long grass and heather. Sadly the dawn sunshine had disappeared as I past the Buttonoak Pub which gave us a prolonged wait where we did record 2 Wood Warbler and a Siskin.
So what's the difference to the Small-bordered Fritillary?
They are most easily distinguished by their undersides - each has a row of seven pearls, but the pearl-bordered Fritillary exhibits two very distinct additional pearls, while the small pearl-bordered fritillary has a colourful mosaic of white, orange and brown markings. The quickest way of checking species is the leading edge of the left fore-wing which resemble the figures 730.
We probably recorded 12-15 in total during the session. The species became my 25th of the year and 45th in pursuit of photographing all the UK species.
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