We walked Littleferry links this morning on a day which promised some sunshine but which stayed stubbornly dull, not that this detracted from the pleasure of finding plenty to look at, including....
....the masses of northern marsh orchids which weren't in flower when we last wandered the links. This year's crop appears to be more abundant than previous years' but smaller in size - perhaps because of the dry May. We also enjoyed....
....the variation in colours and....
....patterns between the flowers of different individuals.
We didn't see a burnet moth last summer, but that may be because we weren't out and about much this time a year ago. There were plenty on the wing today, most feeding on the bird's-foot trefoil.
This is a more unusual view of the six-spot burnet's underside, while....
....this is the view more usually on display showing the six spots and the underwing.
This beautiful butterfly was comatose in the middle of one of the paths. It's a fritillary but I hesitate to identify the various members of the species.
On our way back to the car through the woods we checked on the creeping lady's tresses, which are still some days away from blooming.
Pearl bordered fritillary. You might also see small pearl bordered fritillaries around and the two are difficult to tell apart. There are pictures on the internet showing you what to look for in identification. My go-to help in times like this is Google lens. Not only can you use Google lens to photograph and identify the subject but you can also ask it to look at a photograph you have previously taken to identify them retrospectively.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Derryck
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