The High Brown Fritillary Butterfly a difficult one to separate from the Dark Green Fritillary unless you get a good view of the underside of the High Brown and it would also be a new butterfly species for me, so the best way of seeing one would be in Cumbria on a Butterfly Conservation walk with licenced catchers who are allowed to net the High Brown.
Undermillbeck Common was the battle ground and the group was 10 strong with two nets let the battle commence.
Any butterfly took some finding on this overcast day we started with Small Skippers, Meadow Browns and Ringlets. The Fritillary’s were harder to find but we got some luck with a sunny interval and Fritillary’s started to appear, netting them was different thing but once the experts got their eye in catches stated to happen. Examination of the first half-dozen showed all to be Dark Green Fritillay’s, bellies were rumbling so we decided on a dinner break, more Fritillary’s appeared tantalising us as we ate our sandwich’s , sure they were grinning as they flew past.
Plan B after dinner to a site nearby, which was within walking distance, we kept a look out for Purple Hairstreaks on the way passed some oak trees, they were being elusive as well. On the site Small Skippers and Common Blue Damselflies were about, no High Browns to be seen. A Common Blue Butterfly was on the wing then we had great views of a Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary settled and gave the group some wonderful views, then a Female Black Darter settled and gave us a great photo opportunity.
The idea was to go back to the first site for an extra 20 mins but it took only 5 mins before a fritillary was in the net the call went out a High Brown had been caught and was soon in the pot giving the group good views of the fine details of the butterfly before it was released.
We left the site and four of us decided to go on to another High Brown site (Barkbooth Lot) and on entering the site we had caught another High Brown Fritillary within 5 minutes, these turned out to be the only two we saw for the day , we had plenty of Dark Green Fritillary’s to confuse us all
High Brown Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
Huddsbirder 