the best of luck

I had one of the most exciting butterfly experiences so far yesterday!

 

Having travelled a little way to a local woods to find the elusive pearl bordered fritillary, I got well and truly lost thanks to my atrocious map reading skills and tramped miles...eventually finding myself on some sort of motor rally track 😨

 

Heading back uphill, the map finally began to make sense (!) and after nearing my target area I saw the welcome sight of a fellow enthusiast, camera around neck, scanning the ground - thank you Jon!

 

The area of scrubland the butterflies love is very sensitive as there are caterpillars in the leaf litter and of course food sources need protecting too, so we waited for a long time for one of these beauties to land close enough to the path to photograph well.

 

Eventually this stunning butterfly chose to rest on the gorse, with its perfect complementary colours. Even better, a large cloud came over just at that moment so it decided to stay put and pose beautifully for a while. What luck!

 

Apologies for the long write up...but I'm still buzzing with excitement!

Done