PhotoDiary :: Editing diary entry 89

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Content Off to Charterhouse to try and spot fritillaries and to listen to skylarks. When we were last up at Charterhouse with Steve, we saw some fritillaries but weren't able to identify them, also I was feeling skylark-deprived --- we try to ensure that one day each summer, we take a light picnic and spend some time just listening to skylark song. While we were there, we checked out the old smelting pond, now completely taken over by reeds and wildlife, there's a rather fine patch of water-lilies. I managed to get a shot of yellow-wort with its petals open - they seem only to open during the middle of the day, at all other times, they are just pointed buds. The flowering grasses can be very delicately pretty and there are Common Spotted and Bee orchids if you care to spend some time looking. Fritillaries are often strong fliers and these were too busy to be photographed until they knocked off work at around six when it was clearly time for a bit of R&R and only then were we able to get some good close-ups. They turned out to be Pearl-bordered Fritillaries, Ngaio used her mobile phone's camera to take a nice shot of one with its wings classically spread, an excellent illustration. Sad to relate, the [Pearl-bordered Fritillary](http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/bdata/pearl-bordered_fritillary.html) is in rapid decline in the UK and, although once widespread, the species is now declared to be "highly threatened" in England and Wales. Enter the content of the posting
Status Draft/Published
Date

Publication date.

Water lily

Grass

Pearl-bordered fritillary

Yellow-wort

Common spotted orchid

Hoary Plantain