High Brown Frits at Arnside Knott

On the way up to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games on Friday, we stopped at Arnside Knott, the aim being to see High Brown Fritillary (a species I failed to see in this area last year, although not at this site). Arnside is a great site (and Silverdale is a lovely area worthy of more exploration), and the HBF's were not too problematic, with one showing fairly quickly near the topograph, and another by the path on the way up to the trig point on a patch of betony.

The path up from the carpark

HBF habitat

The first HBF was actually a bit confusing, as its upperwing pattern (i.e. the third spot form the apex of the forewing) looked to my eye more like what you'd expect on a Dark-green Frit, but the underwing pattern removed any doubt. The second individual looked much more like what I expected on the upperwing.

HBF 1

HBF 1

HBF 2

HBF 2

As well as HBF, we saw several Graylings and a couple of Scotch Argus; no Northern Brown Argus though.

Frit twitchers

Looking north towards the Lake District