With butterfly season coming to an end, I thought I had better finish writing about this year’s trip to East Blean woods. I blogged about the tame heath fritillary recently, but I did see more on that day. The image featured above is of a pair of meadow browns found just to the side of a main track. I normally struggle to get enough depth of field for one small butterfly, so I didn’t really expect to get all of two large butterflies in focus, but I got lucky. One had quite a large chunk of wing missing, but for me, it doesn’t spoil the photograph.
The image below was found very close to the car park. At first, I only noticed the ladybird being harassed by some wood ants. It wasn’t until that evening when I opened the file on my computer, that I saw the tiny aphids. Wood ants “farm” aphids and protect them from predators. In return, the aphids produce a sugary honeydew to feed the ants.
Lastly, two more photographs of the heath fritillary butterflies.
Steve
18 Sep 2025Looking good and still a few butties hanging around.
Zooey
18 Sep 2025They are still in our fields. The meadow browns have been replaced by late common blues and recently I spotted a small copper and a small heath 🙂
Sid
26 Sep 2025Wonderful 😊♥️
I do adore butterflies!
Ciao
Sid
Zooey
26 Sep 2025Me too! We still had some in our fields until a couple of days ago 🙂