Glanville Fritillary

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.

Soon after, I spotted this male nectaring on some Thrift. You can see how his abdomen is longer and thinner, reaching the edge of the hindwings. Although the females are slightly larger in size and have more rounded wings, apparently, my novice eyes can't easily detect these differences. The female's wings can also be darker.

I was thrilled to have seen my first Glanville Fritillaries so quickly. It really took the pressure off the remainder of our trip. We could then enjoy our time looking for the different colonies, really exploring each site, and hopefully take some lovely photos of this special butterfly. If we were really lucky, maybe we'd also find a mating pair.

I wanted to capture the moment on my phone, at the top of the cliffs with this lovely view in the distance. In the bottom right hand corner you can see the male perched on the Thrift.

The clouds revealed only brief pockets of sunshine, which meant we'd have more success photographing the butterflies as they would be less flighty. Although we spotted some nectaring and moving from one source to another, there were also longer periods when they rested with their both wings open and closed.

Bob found this lovely fresh female and we both enjoyed photographing her on the Red Sorrel.

Whilst we were near her, Bob suddenly noticed a male Kestrel perched right at the edge of the cliff less than five metres away from us. The tall grasses prevented any good photos, but it was lovely to see. It certainly didn't fly off in a hurry either, fairly unperturbed by our presence.

We wandered further along the path and gradually worked our way lower, staying close to each other, but independently looking for other Glanvilles. We were now being a bit more particular about which ones we'd photograph, wanting nice fresh ones without damage to their wings. That was when I found a mating pair. I was thrilled and called Bob over. It wasn't until afterwards, looking at the photo more closely, that I noticed how much more orange and fresher the male looked (on the right). It's usually the other way around with butterflies, as the males emerge early, before the females, so they're ready to mate as soon as the opportunity arises.

The next photo, of this same mating pair, is one of my favourites because it was the first opportunity I had to really appreciate the pattern on the underwings. It's beautiful and very unique. It's the best way to distinguish these fritillaries from others. I particularly love the orange hue of the golden sandstone cliffs in the background.

I'm not sure if it is just the light, but the male, which is now on the left, looks a little more creamier than the female. He was nectaring on the Thrift whilst they were mating. Talk about multi-tasking!

We were always really careful where we were walking to cause minimal disturbance. This need was really brought home to me when I stepped down from a rock and suddenly spotted a newly emerged fritillary very close to me. Her wings were still a little rumpled and for the first time I was able to appreciate how much darker the female is when fresh like this.

We found a handful of small pools of water below the collapsed cliff providing us with some distraction from the butterflies for a while. Aside from some tadpoles swimming around, there was also a male and a female Broad-bodied Chaser seen. She was busy egg laying. From her hovered position, just above the water, she would quickly and repeatedly lower the tip of her abdomen downwards, only sometimes being semi-submerged. It was fabulous to watch and a challenge to photograph, especially as I only had my macro lens with me.

After a short stroll along the beach to the base of the wooden steps, which would take us back to the clifftop and the car park, we enjoyed spotting our first Large Skipper of the year. There were also lots of Six-spot Burnet Moths on the wing and I saw several mating pairs. It was mid-afternoon by this point and we were both very tired, so decided to drive to Ventnor and find St Maur, our B&B.

The accommodation was fabulous and the host very welcoming, providing us with some useful information on good places to eat out. After a bit of down time and freshening up, we decided to head out again. Wheeler's Bay, on the waterfront of Ventnor, is another known site for the Glanville and conveniently close for us to visit before dinner. Since it was still light, we were hoping to see some roosting butterflies and walked there from our B&B.

Along the promenade, I spotted a Wall Lizard resting on a rock out in the open. Apparently, the colony in Ventnor is one of the oldest and largest in the UK. I've seen this species before at Shoreham Fort, but they were introduced there in the 1970s.

We didn't see any butterflies flying around, and we were starting to wonder if we'd have any success finding some Glanvilles. We were almost at the point of giving up when Bob suddenly spotted that familiar splash of orange adorning the Red Valerian at the base of the cliff walk. Once we spotted one, we then saw a handful more and they were all congregating in one small area.

I love these underwing backlit shots, especially this one with the pink haze of the Red Valerian in the background.

Shortly after, the cliffs obscured the sun and we left the butterflies in peace. It was time for dinner. We were famished by this point and had a wonderful meal at the Spyglass Inn. I was particularly impressed with their vegetarian selection and delicious desserts. Although it was too breezy to sit outside for long, overlooking the beach, we were able to have a window table indoors and continued to enjoy the view. It was a lovely end to our wonderful first day.

DAY 2

After a delicious hearty breakfast in the morning, we returned to Compton Beach. It was generally sunnier than the previous day, but still a bit windy. The temperature wasn't especially high when we first arrived, but it soon warmed up enough to encourage the butterflies into flight.

A small group of butterfly enthusiasts arrived when we did and headed along the clifftop path where we'd already explored, so we decided to head off in a different direction along the top of the cliff. We didn't find any Glanvilles, so we headed down the wooden steps to see what we could find at the lower level, just above the beach.

Bob spotted a solitary Bee Orchid early on, though we did see a couple more a few days later. There were also a couple of Common Blues roosting before the sun warmed them up. They weren't in their prime, with tatty white wing edges and generally were quite faded in colour.

We found a few tatty roosting Glanville Fritillaries, but we certainly weren't seeing the number we'd had on higher ground on the Sunday. Whilst meandering around, I spotted a clump of tall grass move on a small bank near the path. It was the kind of movement that might have been triggered by a small creature moving around in the undergrowth. I stopped, hoping to see it, but unfortunately, it remained out of sight. However, as a result of stopping to pay closer attention, I suddenly noticed a Glanville near my feet. At first, I thought it was newly emerged as there was a slight curl to the right hindwing (not visible in the photo). Only later did I realise that was unlikely, as a chunk of wing is missing from the top of the left hindwing, which you can see in the photo. (Notice the black spot on the orange that is showing on the forewing, which is tucked behind, which you wouldn't normally seen when the wings are closed like this.)

With less butterfly photographic opportunities, I was happy just looking around the edge of the pond to see what else I could find. Along the edges, there were loads of black caterpillars with orange along their side. I used Obsidentify and discovered they were Water-dropwort Brown moth caterpillars. Shortly after noticing them, I spotted a pair of Azure Damselflies in tandem (notice the black small spur on the thorax of the male on top). It was somewhat tricky trying to capture this image because the reeds were moving about quite a bit, and several of them getting in the way of a clean shot. Whilst trying to do this, I realised my head was extremely close a mass of the caterpillars and I didn't want to disturb, or wear them!

Generally, I fared much better with my photos that morning when the sun was temporarily obscured by clouds. My best Glanville photo of the day was a lovely female resting on some bramble. Soon after seeing her, we went for a walk along the beach towards another car park, and then back along the footpath at the top of the cliffs. I spotted a Wall Brown butterfly near the car park and then further along the Glanvilles were seen again on the wing mostly. I noticed they were often on the path ahead of us too, but usually flew off as we approached.

Walking along the clifftop was interesting as we could see how fragile the area was. In some places, large sections of cliff had collapsed and the public footpath was diverted to keep people safe and away from the edge. But, in terms of the Glanville Fritillary, they thrive in these land-slip areas where they are sheltered under the cliff and where plantain and other wildflowers have started to emerge on the disturbed soil. This is why they also like the Chines. It's a local term for a deep, narrow gorge where water has cut through the soft sandstone cliffs as it makes its way to the sea. So, after lunch, having spent plenty of time exploring Compton Beach, we decided to check out some other potential sites, visiting a few of the Chines as we worked our way eastwards.

We didn't have any luck seeing the Glanvilles at the first Chine, but Whale Chine proved to be a lovely spot for them, plus we had a great view along the coast from this point. Unfortunately, the path down to the beach was closed, but there was plenty to occupy our time at the top of the cliff.

The butterflies were all very active in the warm afternoon sunshine. I couldn't believe how many Glanvilles we saw at this location. They seemed to be everywhere. Mostly we saw males on the wing frantically in search of females, but sometimes I'd find a female amongst the fray, like this one.

The Thrift was abundant at the top of the Chine and around the edges of the clifftop. It seemed to be the most popular nectaring source for the Glanvilles, though Bird's-foot Trefoil is another favoured nectar source and was also seen nearby.

I walked around quite a bit, simply enjoying watching the males pursuing the females. Invariably, of the ones I saw, the female would always reject their advances and either fly off or hide until the male(s) lost interest.

There were other butterflies and moth species seen, a Small Heath, Common Blue and also a Yellow-shell Moth (photo).

In a way, the butterflies were too active to photograph easily, which was why I enjoyed just watching them and taking a few videos. It was very relaxing and it was good just taking some time to appreciate them.

We finished the afternoon relaxing in the garden of our B&B with a cool drink, listening to the sound of the birds. Briefly, we were also entertained by a couple of male Wall Lizards scampering around the patio. It was another lovely day filled with butterflies.

DAY 3

We decided it was time for something different by the third day. Having spent the majority of our time at the coast looking for insects, we opted for a walk in Parkhurst Forest, near Newport. It was a place I'd been before a few years ago with my mother. On that occasion we'd seen just one Red Squirrel high up a tall tree near the hide. I really wanted another opportunity to see these delightful creatures found on the island, even though I knew there was a chance we wouldn't spot any.

We headed off in the direction of the hide, but to my amazement, we actually spotted a Red Squirrel before we reached it. Bob saw some movement in a tree ahead of us and suddenly a squirrel emerged up the branch of a dead tree. What luck! It was such a wonderful clear sight of it. The squirrel clocked us too and, for a few seconds, we all stood still watching each other.

After taking a few photos, the squirrel scampered along the trunk, back through the fir tree and across the canopy above the path towards the other side. That was when I spotted the second squirrel, which was already amongst the foliage in the deciduous trees to our left. It was quite dark underneath and hard to photograph, so I used some exposure compensation to lighten the photos and see more clearly.

This second one was a female, I'm pretty sure, but the first one was a male. I think it's possible that it was a mother with one of her off-spring from last year. What was fascinating to watch, was how she appeared to be licking the honeydew from the leaves. Normally, you see the squirrels in fir trees.

The Red Squirrels made my day. I was so happy that we'd not only seen them, but had been able to enjoy watching them for nearly half an hour undisturbed. In fact, the forest was quite deserted and we felt like we had the place virtually to ourselves. There was the constant sound of the birds all around us, wherever we walked, but there were limited butterflies seen -  we saw our first Meadow Brown of the year - and no dragonflies or damselflies.

At one point, we had decided to change direction and not continue down the path we were on. As I turned around, I spotted something a little distance away, walking across the path where we'd just walked. I looked through my bins and realised it was a Common Toad. I didn't want to approach too quickly, in case of scaring it off. However, it was making quite a steady bee-line for the other side of the path, which meant I wasn't really quick enough to capture many good photos. This was the only one worth keeping.

We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch in the forest before heading back to the coast for some more butterfly action. I'd enjoyed Whale Chine so much the day before, I was keen to go back there again. We only stayed for an hour as there wasn't quite as much activity. Many of the butterflies seemed to be sheltering from the wind over the edge of the cliffs. However, I did see another mating pair of Glanvilles, plus one nectaring on the Oxeye Daisies and a beautiful fresh looking female on the big leaves of the Ribwort Plantain, the foodplant of the caterpillar.

Since it was our last evening, we also decided to go back to Wheeler's Bay one final time and look for the roosting Glanvilles again. We actually didn't see quite as many as the previous occasion. But, there were a few. Amazingly, Bob spotted a mating pair just below another female higher up the bank. The lone female could only see the male and wasn't aware he was already mating, so she was in the 'rejection' posture with her abdomen raised up. I only had my macro lens, so wasn't able to take a good photo, but you can just about see the three of them slightly up and left of centre.

I found another two butterflies roosting on the same Red Valerian, although they didn't seem to mind each other.

I was lucky enough to be videoing this butterfly from the underside, when it suddenly turned and opened it's wings wide. Lovely!

This is another one of my favourite photos, shot in the lovely evening light. I love how you can only see the eyes and antennae of the butterfly as it peering from behind the plantain.

DAY 4

On our final day, the rain arrived! We left the B&B that morning with low expectations, however, we didn't give up and go back to the mainland early. There was a chance it wouldn't be as bad as they forecast and we might find some roosting butterflies to photograph. The only downside to our plan was that we didn't have waterproof trousers with us, just waterproof jackets - the rain hadn't been forecast when we'd left home.

We decided to start at Whale Chine and spent two hours there. This proved to be a good plan as it didn't rain, even though we could see dark rain clouds in the distance and either side of us at various times. Needless to say, there wasn't much of anything flying around, but we did have success finding the Glanvilles resting on various vegetation, including over half a dozen in one small area.

I didn't find any butterflies with rain actually on them, but you could see the drops on the seedheads of the grass.

I particularly loved it when they were on the Red Sorrel. This front on shot is another favourite. These kinds of photos definitely create more of an intimacy with the creature. I feel more connected to it.

Once again, I found two together on one seedhead. What I particularly like about this photo is the view you have of the female. You can see just how big her abdomen is, which is filled with eggs. Each female will lay between 50-100 eggs in each batch.

Whilst we were at Whale Chine, we spotted a Spanish galleon not far off the coast sailing in the direction of Ventnor. This might usually seem a little bizarre, but we were informed earlier in the morning that the town were putting on some special celebrations to mark the anniversary of the Spanish Armada's attempted invasion of England in 1588. The galleon would be firing a cannon salute off the coast. It was a shame the weather wasn't better to mark the occasion.

By the time we were ready to move on to Compton Beach for one last visit, and have a bite to eat, the rain descended. We sat in the car to eat our snacks, but as luck would have it, by the time we were ready to head out, the rain had eased off sufficiently. We walked down to the lower level again, hopeful we'd find some roosting butterflies, but we saw very little. I spotted the Large Skipper again, this time hiding under some leaves and found a few Soft-winged Flower Beetles crawling over some Thrift, including a mating pair (Psilothrix viridicoerulea).

I'd been so pleased with all the wonderful views of Glanville Fritillaries we'd had over the course of the four days we'd been there, it was hardly disappointing we saw so few on our last afternoon. There were a few last treats for us though, including the photo at the bottom of this blog.

Just when we were ready to leave, Bob spotted another mating pair. The female is on top and looking much fresher than the male.

For quite some time they both perched with their wings closed, but then the female gradually opened up her wings trying to warm up.

It was the perfect last Glanville Fritillary sighting of our trip. From there, we trudged our way back up the steps to the top of the cliffs. That was when I spotted a Kestrel hovering nearby. Since our first day, when we'd seen one perched on the cliff top, quite frequently we'd seen a pair flying around. It was lovely to have one more glimpse and to get a photo. I quite like that it's a bit different. The sun was out, creating the lovely bokeh affect in the background over the sea. Even though you can't see the bird's head, I like the position of its wings and tail.

It was a wonderful mini break to the Isle of Wight and seeing yet another new species of butterfly for me. Whilst there are lots of other places of interest on the island - some of which I've seen on other occasions - we were both really happy spending our days looking for these lovely butterflies. Bob had only been to see them on the island once before, so he was equally in his element enjoying the opportunity and our experience together.

I ought to add, you can see the Glanville Fritillary on the mainland, but these other colonies are the result of various reintroductions. The Isle of Wight colonies are the last remaining natural British colonies. They are considered to be at the northernmost extent of their range.

Now I'm one step closer to achieving my goal and seeing all the UK species. Next up will be the Heath Fritillary. As I'm nearing the end of this quest, I'm really excited to see the last few species. What a journey I've been on these last few years.