With the birds drying up, I had a day out and visited Shropshire to a butterfly site at Prees Heath Common. This is the last sanctuary for the Silver-studded blue butterfly in the Midlands. The reserve is on a large common that had been a World War 2 airfield. The silver-studded blues were in good numbers as we walked around the common.
Silver studded blues
Other species of butterfly were seen as we walked around the common, and a cracking Green woodpecker showed well for a few minutes before a dog walker flushed it.
Painted Lady
Ringlet
After a good walk around the site and a bit of lunch, I moved on to Eyarth rocks near Ruthin in Denbighshire, which is being carefully managed to sustain North Wales' strongest populations of the threatened Pearl-bordered fritillary. After one hell of a hike up a mountain, I eventually found the site, which was well overgrown. I did connect with a Dark green fritillary and gave it a good hour searching around, but couldn't connect with any Pearl bordered fritillary, and then the weather started to deteriorate, so I called it a day.
Dark green fritillary
