Tag Archives: lankham bottom

An orange, yellow, black and white butterfly on green vegetation

Marsh Fritillary. Photo: Sam Ellis

Sam sent in this photo telling us:

Just sharing this photo of one of eleven Marsh Fritillaries I saw today, 24/05/2023 at Lankham Bottom in a 15-min Count. I actually saw several more after I finished the count! So good numbers considering the season. All seemed fairly fresh. They were all recorded on the north-west facing slope in the gully at the southern end of the site. I didn’t see any on the south-facing slope at the northern end where you also usually see them.

An orange butterfly with black, white, yellow and blue markings near some yellow flowers

Small Tortoiseshell. Photo: Donald Simcock

Donald sent in this photo with the following comments:

Yesterday, 27/07/2022 at Lankham Bottom whilst helping clear away ragwort with Nigel’s group I saw 5 Small Tortoiseshells all feeding on Ragwort and one bumping another off the flower.

A good chance I thought to try and get a picture of one taking off. So with a high film speed and a high shutter speed I finally got one good photo with the other hundred or so in the recycle bin. This photo shows the proboscis still extended during flight.

An orange butterfly with yellow, black and brown markings resting amongst some green vegetation

Marsh Fritillary. Photo: Mike Lewis

A yellow moth with brown markings resting on some green vegetation

Speckled Yellow Moth. Photo: Mike Lewis

Two photos from Mike who sent them in commenting as follows:

Marvellous walk at Lankham Bottom this morning, 19/05/2022.  Literally hundreds of Wood Tiger moths, my first Brown Argus of the year, a Speckled Yellow moth, the usual collection of Common Blues, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, one high speed fly-past by a Painted Lady and a couple of Marsh Fritillaries.

This Marsh Fritillary is not just another Marsh Fritillary though, it’s special because it’s my first ever!

A brown and orange butterfly with black and white markings resting on a purple flower

Meadow Brown. Photo: Daniel Law

Dan sent in this photo saying:

We tend to look upon the Meadow Brown as a drab common-or-garden butterfly but just now and again one stands out as a rather special representative of the species.  This individual graced the slopes of Lankham Bottom this afternoon, 03/09/2021.