As a birthday present, I bought Lin a place (and a place for me too) on the Kent Wild Life Study Day to learn about Kentish butterflies.
We spent the morning in the classroom at Tyland Barn learning how to identify the various species of butterfly, their lifecycle and their habitat. After lunch we visited Queensdown Warren, an internationally important chalk downland reserve. The weather was perfect and the sight of literally thousands of butterflies soon greeted us. I managed to take photographs of some of the species that we saw and I hope that I have identified them correctly.
Common Blue female
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Red dragonfly
Netting butterflies for closer inspection
Skipper
Painted Lady
A pair of common blue butterflies showing distinctive underside
Common Blue male
Common Blue female
Small tortoiseshell
Small white
Bumble-bee
Landscape around Queensdown Warren
In the field
Gatekeeper
Common Blue
Meadow Brown
Arvo Pärt – Spiegel im Spiegel (excerpt)