Alpine Stream

When Bob and I returned from our Isle of Wight trip to see the Glanville Fritillary for the first time, I was eager for the next challenge - seeing the Heath Fritillary butterfly in Kent. However, the weather wasn't quite ideal and I had to sit tight for another week before there was a good opportunity for us to head over for the day. Thankfully, it was a Friday, which meant there would be fewer people around, which we both prefer as it's more peaceful. It was still very early in the flight season with only a few sightings having been posted on social media, and this meant we might have a good chance of seeing some fresh butterflies, which is always lovely when they look pristine and fresh. Thankfully, we both don't mind the early starts when there is a good reason for it and it wasn't too ridiculously early on this occasion! It took us just over two hours to reach East Blean Woods car park, after a few detours and delays. We arrived just after 9am and only a few other vehicles were parked there. It was still slightly cool and cloudy, which meant the butterflies wouldn't be too active yet. This was ideal for us, so we could take plenty of photos. When we began the walk, I felt fairly oprtimistic we'd see some during the day, but I was prepared that we might need to look at various different sites in the area. I didn't expect that within 5 minutes of leaving the car park and having only walked 50 metres, I would spot the first one of the day, roosting on a bracken fern in the cool shade of the woods. It was a lovely fresh specimen and a wonderful start to the day. Within moments of me spotting this one, Bob saw another one roosting nearby. Fabulous!

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that after I completed the challenge of seeing all the butterfly species we have in Sussex , I began a follow-up quest to see all the species of butterfly found in the UK. Last year, in 2024, a few trips north to Cumbria and Scotland gave me the opportunity to see many of the species not found in the south, including the Chequered Skipper , Large Heath and Scotch Argus . This meant I had only three more species left to see as we headed into 2025 - the Glanville Fritillary, Heath Fritillary and Swallowtail, all of which are either rare or scarce localised species. Since they all emerge around May and June, I took time off from work so Bob and I could be spontaneous about when we'd try and see each of these species. The weather would impact us to a large extent, and so too when each butterfly species would start to emerge. My first target for the year was the Glanville Fritillary on the Isle of Wight. DAY 1 Since most butterfly species this year have been early on account of the warm dry spring we've had, we ended up booking a few nights on the island in mid-May, as soon as we knew there was a good chance of some fairly nice weather. Booking the ferry and finding a lovely B&B in Ventnor at fairly short notice was thankfully easy. We got up at the crack of dawn on the Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend. After having a fairly straightforward drive to Portsmouth and smooth ferry crossing, we reached Compton Beach on the south west of the island by mid-morning. It was cloudy when we arrived and Bob was eager to find some roosting Glanville Fritillaries. I was just eager to see my first one. We slowly ambled along the clifftop path, our eyes scouring the flowers along the way, hoping for that first flash of orange. As luck would have it, our first Glanville Fritillary was nectaring on a thistle right beside the path. It was a lovely fresh female. Her shorter, more rounded abdomen, was very apparent.