Last week I made a trip to Oakley Wood just the other side of Cirencester, looking for Pearl Bordered Fritillaries which are usually on the wing by now. It had been a fairly sunny morning, but some clouds had built up by the time of my visit. Disappointingly there were no butterflies to be seen at all and we were wondering if something had happened to cause the butterflies to disappear from this woodland area.
However, I decided to re-visit a week later and today the weather had been cloudy in the morning but had become sunny and warm. I parked the car at the entrance to the woodland and walked down the wide track before taking a narrow path into the fairly new wooded area. Looking around, to my relief, within a couple of minutes of entering the area where they are usually found, I saw a couple of orange butterflies fluttering quickly low to the ground which I knew would be the fritillaries I was searching for. Soon I noticed more of them, constantly on the wing, occasionally circling round another of their species before flying off again. I must have seen at least 10 - 20 of them. I had to be patient to get any decent photos, as they hardly ever settled, and when they did they seemed to choose a bugle flower that was hidden low down amongst the grasses.
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