I had an all day meeting at Killerton yesterday and after the meeting finished and as the sun was shining I popped into Ashclyst Forest again to look for white admirals. What a success – never seen so many butterflies in one place before. Counted them all up and then submitted them to Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count. 123 individuals in 15 minutes!

There were 15 silver-washed fritillaries including this male

This is the female

This is the characteristic underwing pattern

Love the eyes

And I did see 4 white admirals – only got this photo which is poor but at least proves the species is there!

If you haven’t tried the Big Butterfly Count – have a go it’s very easy and you will also make David Attenborough happy – see here