West Blean Fritillaries !

I've had this trip marked on the calendar since last year, West & East Blean the place to go to see Heath Fritillaries, a new Butterfly species for me to see.

Sightings have been appearing over the last few days, it was now or never.
I decided to visit the West Blean Woodland site, I didn't realise what a vast site it was, follow the 'Black way-marked trail' other observers had said,  this was nearly a six mile round trip.

I parked up in the West Blean RSPB car park, found the Map of the woods and the start of the trail, at least the sun was shining, just a matter of finding the colonies in this vast woodland.

After walking for some time along the trail, the only Butterfly I had seen was a Speckled wood, paths were criss- crossing everywhere,  I wasn't even sure if I was still on the right trail, another half hour passed still no sign, I was beginning to think I'd had a wasted journey, I could see a sunny clearing up ahead and I decided that I would start the return journey after that point.

A sunny clearing of low Bracken and scattered bramble flowers, a Butterfly caught my eye, a closer look and I could see the typical Fritillary type upper wing patterning. Then another, and another, not sure if I had stumbled into the right area or not, but there seemed to be Fritillaries all around me. so I guess it was.

I spent some time in the end, photographing and watching these lovely Butterflies, there seemed to be a bit of a mating frenzy going on. the Butterflies themselves were I would say of medium size, about the size of a Gatekeeper Butterfly, they seemed to like this particular area, not moving far from it.

I was glad I made the effort now, a new site investigated, a new Butterfly seen, just a matter of retracing my steps and finding the car park.