March
Brimstone is one of the first butterflies species to appear in the UK and this year we had our first in the garden on 2 March. A couple of weeks later we had a brief view of a white in Trumpington. But the first UK butterfly we photographed was a Peacock on 23 March in Trumpington Meadows wood.
April
A walk along the disused railway line south of Great Abington allow us to get our photograph of the year of an Orange-tip. With a Specked Wood being photographed on 22 April.
The walk that runs between the High Street and Pampisford Road in Great Abington is good for butterflies as it is undisturbed as has a range of flowers and other vegetation. A one hour session here on 23 April produced good shots of Orange Tip, Green-veined White and Holly Blue, which were all on Green Alkonet.
May
During a walk around the wood at Trumpington Meadows on 1 May I saw a few whites and Brimstone flying, but none of them were landing, with only a Holly Blue giving an opportunity to get a photograph.
The 9 May was warm and sunny and perfect for butterfly photography so I headed to the Newmarket end of the Devil’s Dyke in the afternoon. The south facing bank of one of the horse racing training tracks was particularly productive and I got several new butterflies for the year as well as better shots of species seen earlier. Species count for this year so far is 11.
Late in May we spent a week in Dartmouth and on one day visited Yarner Wood, which is an ancient oak woodland managed by Natural England and an excellent site to see Pearl-bordered Fritillary butterflies. Both the Pearl-bordered Fritillary and the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary can be seen on this site, although both species appear very similar. We’d read on the web that the best place to see these butterflies is at the edges of the main entrance road, and this indeed proved to be the case.
