Ringlet ( Aphantopus hyperantus )

I had reason to visit our "lawnmower man" in Brampton so after lunch Clickychick, Kanyl, and myself set off.  Arriving at his workshop the job took less than 5 minutes, leaving plenty of time to visit TalkingTarn.

Clearly, the first thing on the agenda had to be coffee and cakes.  We entertained while sitting there by the ducks which clearly knew people would feed them.  All the males have moulted into eclipse plumage and we tried working out which were males and females.  There were a good number of "mucky ducks" hybrids between mallards and other breeds.  As far as I could tell there were probably three other species/varieties, white farmyard ducks, Kahki Campbells and Cayguna.

Next, we set off for a wander with kanyl taking his wheelchair with him.  We wandered along chatting and identifying plants etc.  Before we knew it we were more than halfway round so it was best to carry on.

Among the things we spotted were good numbers of Ringlets.  I have difficulty photographing butterflies as they rarely sit still for me.  Today this one posed for me.  It appears to have had a hard life going by the wings.

The habitat was ideal for them.  One of the nectar plants the adults favour is brambles, the caterpillars feed on such grasses as Cocks-foot, meadow grasses (Poa sp),  and couch.  There were lots of all these available which probably accounts for the good numbers of adults.  I haven't seen many other butterflies this year.