Valezina

After dropping Pete off to at the Great fen, I had a splendid walk round Holme Fen NNR. There were lots of Silver-washed Fritillary in some of the more open glades, including a female var. valezina, which has bronze-green wings rather than the more usual orange. I hadn't taken my telephoto lens, so capturing this with the macro lens took some very careful fieldcraft, involving carefully climbing through rough grass and brambles without disturbing her!  The sun had disappeared at this point - probably fortunate as I doubt that she would have stayed so still if she'd been warmer.


It was also good to see several tussocks of Wavy Hair-grass in one of the areas cleared of birch (4th record for Huntingdonshire, last recorded from Holme Fen in 2010), as well as plenty of plants of Cross-leaved Heath.