On my return from Exmoor I was hoping at last to see Marble White butterflies and I wasn’t disappointed. I went round the other side of Hambledon Hill one sunny morning looking in the old chalk pit and there were a few and because it was quite warm they were very active and I had to be patient to get a picture of one settling on some vegetation.

The red blobs on the Marble White butterfly in the second image are mites called Trombidium breei, certain butterflies are more prone to them but they don’t appear to harm the butterfly.

Another morning I walked round the local fields, the one near the footbridge over the Stour hasn’t been cut yet. I walked around the perimeter track getting my legs very wet in the dew and hoping to see some insects in the grass. Not much luck until I spotted one Marble White roosting on grass covered in dew. I went on my walk and came back the same way and it was still there but this time with sun on the butterfly, so I took a few more images backlit and front lit.

There is a little more butterfly action at the end of July and I saw a few Small Tortoiseshell butterfly caterpillars on Nettles down the lane.

I’m seeing plenty of Gatekeeper butterflies now both down the lane and in the garden.

I also spotted a Ringlet butterfly down the lane but I haven’t seen too many of them.