With a reasonably fine day forecast I thought I drive over to Oakley Wood near Cirencester in search of Pearl bordered fritillary butterflies which is the only local hotspot I know of and just half an hour away. On arrival I went to get my camera bag from the boot, only to discover that I'd left my new camera back at home, having forgotten to return it to the bag!!
After a few moments of frustration, I realised that I still had a small compact camera with me so as it has a fairly decent macro facility decided that it would have to do for today, as long the butterflies were obligingly happy to settle and let me get pretty close up.
Having visited this area of Cirencester Park on several occasions I now know the best spot for finding these pretty orange butterflies and after parking in the woodland carpark I headed there straight away. After a few hundred yards I reached the area of relatively newly planted trees with a carpet of bluebells growing beneath them and waited.
With the sun in and out of the clouds I knew that I'd be only likely to see these butterflies when the sun was shining. I just hoped they would settle for me today.
I didn't have to wait that long before I saw one flying towards me, its bright orange colouring making it hard to miss. It flew around for a bit before settling to feed not far from me and what is more, stayed long enough for me to get a reasonable photo before flying off out of sight once more. Each time the sun came out, it wasn't long before it reappeared and I was able to get fairly close after it settled and before it flew off again. I only saw two of these butterflies today, but it is early in the season and it wasn't as warm as it could be today. I will try and come back again (with my bigger camera) and hopefully get some views of their beautiful underwings.
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