High Brown Fritillaries at Aish Tor, Dartmoor

  We made a trip to Dartmoor to visit Aish Tor to see the High Brown Fritillaries. We arrived quite early but the day was already warming up and butterflies were already flying around the bracken covered slopes.

  There were plenty of Dark Green Fritillaries flying to cause confusion with the High Browns but eventually after searching the hillside we found a male High Brown sitting on a patch of brambles. 

  A little later we saw a mating pair sitting on the bracken. 

  On another part of the slopes we found a female High Brown which is shown in the photographs below. A male, the butterfly on the right,  landed next to her. As he made his advances he flew off the bracken towards her and she raised her abdomen in repsonse as you can see in the photograph. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and he flew off to look for another female!

 During the day we found over 40 High Brown Fritillaries, which makes Aish Tor one of the best places in the south-west to see this rare species of butterfly.

 We also saw several other species including this Green Hairstreak.