Bentley Wood

Our very first official butterflying trip, in August 2020, was to Bentley Wood. Back then, we mostly focused on the rides through the forest. This time, our focus was on the East Clearing, hoping to see one particular, new-to-us, species ....

Although the forecast was for clear blue skies and warm temperatures, there was a lot of cloud cover, and it felt as if things just weren't properly starting up. Seeing very few butterflies over a period of a few hours, we bumped into two butterfly enthusiast, who had seen our target species a little while ago, and kindly pointed us to where they had seen it.

And, after maybe an hour of walking back and forth, there it was:

Pearl-bordered fritillary!

And, as icing on the cake, just as we were about to leave, a grizzled skipper buzzed away and then posed for a picture.

Despite the low numbers, a good day butterflying, and the first new species of the year. Here's today's table (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):