Last weekend we went to complete the July survey for STERF, the French Butterfly Atlas project.
The outright star this month was the Gatekeeper, pyronia tithonus. It really stole the show....
A refreshing change was provided first by the Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria...
And then by a very attractive Sooty Copper, Heodes tityrus...
Colin was photographing a bee on Ragwort when a chance entrant took the limelight. We've not been able to identify it conclusively so would appreciate any help on this one...
I couldn't resist this last shot. It shows the boundary of one transect and although it is heavily managed woodland, I can't help but see it as magical in the sunlight..
2 comments:
Gatekeepers certainly are abundant at the moment. I had the same problem. No Speckled Woods or Commas though. The SW are doing very badly this year. Your bee is a fly - something like Dexia vacua (one of the parasitoid Tachinidae, I'm not expert enough to give you a 100% positive ID on this family). The incoming butterfly looks like a Brown Argus. BTW your second pic looks like a male Meadow Brown to me.
Well done Susan spotting our deliberate mistake.... We have now corrected it.. Thanks
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