Pristine

The weather forecast was not bad today, so after lunch I drove out to Ring Haw, where I'v been commissioned to do a vegetation survey of the nature reserve for the local Wildlife Trust. 

My focus was the woodland and I spent several hours walking around the area, recording and photographing the vegetation. This enables me to understand the differences between the woodland areas, so that I can choose the optimum locations for my quadrat recording. I started off in sunshine, but gradually the skies darkened, and the showers started - will it ever stop raining?

I returned through the associated quarry and grassland, where I spotted this freshly emerged Large White butterfly sitting in a clump of grass. It was too cold and wet to fly away, so I managed to get close with my macro lens. Often this very common species is overlooked for more showy species, but a pristine example is a thing of beauty, the underside of the forewings delicately patterned with areas of chrome yellow, aqua and cream,, all flecked with black scales. This colouration provides very good camouflage when it is sitting still in the surrounding vegetation.