Dark-green Fritillary

A day spent surveying limestone grassland on the very steep, sun-baked slopes of Wetton Hill in Staffordshire - amazing views but very exhausting working conditions. Shade from the scrubby hawthorns was a lifesaver! The vegetation was so parched that it crumbled when touched, and the steep slopes were surprisingly slippery as a result. One of those days when fieldwork is not really that much fun... 


However, although we suffered, the dark-green fritillaries were loving the sunny conditions, chasing all other butterflies away. They were mostly flying at high speed over the limestone hills, but this one just happened to stop to slurp some nectar from a musk thistle while I was sheltering under the shade of a small bush.  It was also good to see plenty of redstarts - not a species that lives around Peterborough.