A visit from the Queen of Spain

In this autumn of endless westerlies we saw a gap, a breeze of NE, and Mike and I headed for Canvey Island. The birders were all in attendance - standing room only, but sadly the birds weren't. An Arctic Skua so distant it was in a different county, a Whimbrel, and then the usual mix of Sandwich Terns, Mediterranean Gull, Teal, and a few Great-Crested Grebes. Fortunately a small pod of Porpoises livened things up, the occasional arc of fin leading us on a chase.

But we had other plans. After just over an hour we headed for East Tilbury. We toured a remote estate, parked gingerly on the roadside and headed through an area of lock-up garages, rusty transit vans, past men with large dogs. On the Thornberry scale this was scoring significantly. As we exited the estate towards our target field a local man approached us, clearly intent on finding out what we strangers were doing on his manor.

"You can enter the field at that end, or just round that corner. Are you here for the orange butterflies?" We were indeed there for the Queen of Spain Fritillary which has been reported in variable but occasionally large numbers from here recently. He told us exactly where other men had looked for them, asked about the butterflies and wished us luck. But it was our lucky day to get such accurate information.

We took a slow walk round the field initially seeing only white butterflies. But as time passed the sun burnt through the clouds, the heat built, more insects appeared, and a quick flash of orange flew across then disappeared. Could I tick that? We spent a frustrating ten minutes, then another sighting, then another frustrating ten minutes, then one settled on the path in front of us. It sunned itself for a minute or so, then flew off.

It kept returning. We kept looking. Eventually getting excellent views of the upper wing, all dots and whit edging, then finally it lifted its wings and we got the full spread of large white spots. QoS well and truly ticked. 

We had definite three, possibly four. In flight they are fast and generally low. They are hard to follow. But they seemed territorial coming back to plants or more commonly sunig themselves on the ground in the same area.

A Clouded Yellow to finish and we were off. I'd hoped for QoS, I hadn't dared hope to see them like that.

Phone pic of a Queen of Spain Fritillary