The Deskbound Birder: Marsh Fritillary

Showing posts with label Marsh Fritillary. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 May 2025

Hampshire Butterflies - Martin Down 17th May

My second outing in my quest to see all of the regularly breeding butterflies in Hampshire took me to Martin Down on 17th May primarily for Marsh Fritillary which is on the wing from mid-May to mid-June. Its very important to target these species with short flight periods at the peak of their season to avoid missing them - although I guess thats an obvious statement, even with so few species to see in Hampshire, some planning is required. Other targets here were Adonis Blue, Green Hairstreak and Small Blue all of which were seen.

Marsh Fritillary - Slightly worn but still a stunning and highly localised

species in Hampshire

Marsh Fritillary - A much fresher individual than that above

Marsh Fritillary

Adonis Blue - Intense blue with black lines crossing through the white border of both fore and hind wings, a stunning species of sparse chalk grassland

Green Hairstreak

Small Blue

Small Heath

Common Blue - Note how the black sub-margin of the wing lacks the cross lines bisecting the white wing border unlike Adonis Blue

Brimstone - An egg laying female, note the egg towards the base of the plant

on the right hand side

Grizzled Skipper

Burnet Companion

Forester Moth

The stunning hoverfly Xanthogramma citrofasciatum

The bumblebee mimic hoverfly Volucella bombylans

Thursday, 23 May 2019

Martin Down and Bentley Wood - 23rd May

On a beautiful sunny morning I visited Martin Down National Nature Reserve primarily to see Burnt Orchid, now in its peak flowering period. Parking in the car park off the A354, on opening the car door I immediately heard the beautiful soft purring of a Turtle Dove, the bird showed well in the scrub adjacent to the car park as it sat atop a Hawthorn and undertook frequent display flights. From the car park I headed directly to the Bockerly Dyke and walked southwards. The sound of Corn Bunting, Sky Lark and Yellowhammer filled the air and my first Cuckoo called distantly. Butterflies were abundant with good numbers of Small Blue, Common Blue and Dingy Skipper and smaller numbers of Adonis Blue, Grizzled Skipper and Green Hairstreak. I soon reached the area for the Burnt Orchid and found around 10 nearly pristine examples. Wandering back towards the car I spent some time with the small colony of Marsh Fritillary that occur just north of the main mound of the firing range. I came across around 10 males and a freshly emerged female, these are stunning butterflies and one of my favourite British species.

Burnt Orchid - Martin Down NNR

Field Fleawort - Martin Down NNR

Crosswort - Martin Down NNR

Grizzled Skipper - Martin Down NNR

Adonis Blue - Martin Down NNR

Green Hairstreak - Martin Down NNR

Marsh Fritillary - Martin Down NNR

Turtle Dove - Martin Down NNR

Yellowhammer - Martin Down NNR

Corn Bunting - Martin Down NNR

I then headed the short distance to Bentley Wood where I spent an hour or so in the Eastern Clearing. Here a very obliging and freshly emerged Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary was conspicuous amongst the more worn and more abundant (c.15) Pearl-bordered Fritillary. A couple of rather tatty Marsh Fritillary and a Grizzled Skipper were also present. However, the highlight was a stunning fresh Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk which showed very well, it appeared to have just emerged and spent some time perched low in the vegetation before vanishing at high speed and with a deep humming sound.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Eastern Clearing, Bentley Wood

Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Eastern Clearing, Bentley Wood

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk - Eastern Clearing, Bentley Wood

Sunday, 10 June 2018

Cotswold Weekend - 9th and 10th June

We spent the weekend at our cottage in Cowley in the Cotswolds with our good friends Trevor and Julie Codlin. Trevor and I ran the moth trap on both Friday and Saturday night recording a good range of spring and early summer species. On Sunday we headed out looking for butterflies. First we visited Daneway Banks Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Reserve where we had reasonable views of recently emerged Large Blue. Speaking to a chap who we met at the reserve who worked on the Large Blue Recovery Project it would appear that the peak count of Large Blue at this site has been 63, we were perhaps a week or two early for such large numbers.

Large Blue - Daneway Banks GWT Reserve

Common Blue - Daneway Banks GWT Reserve

Daneway Banks GWT Reserve - We found our first Large Blue in the far area of grassland in this image

We then headed for Three Groves Wood GWT Reserve only a few miles away but it seemed like an eternity as we weaved through the narrow Cotswold Lanes. The main target here was Marsh Fritillary and we soon found up to 13 of these beautiful insects as they fed on the numerous yellow composites flowering in the grassland.