The weather forecast though, suggested that plan wouldn't work. This weekend however, particularly Saturday (01/06) looked to be ideal, with calm and sunny weather predicted. So mid-week, ferry tickets were booked for 08:40am on Saturday, sailing from Lymington.
It was an early one to say the least, with a 2 hour drive ahead of us pre-ferry, but was well worth it, enabling us to be on the Isle of Wight by 09:30am!
As predicted, it was a glorious, mild and sunny day as the ferry set off on time - the 40 minute journey was over in a flash and also produced a couple of decent birds. This included a couple of fly-by Little Terns, Sandwich Terns, a few Eiders, Great Crested Grebes and vast colonies of Black-Headed Gulls - surprisingly though, I failed to clap eyes on a single Med Gull!
After arriving at Yarmouth on the other side, I negotiated a look for the Glanville's first - by 09:30am it was already plenty warm enough for butterflies to be moving and as time went on, they were going to be a nightmare to see stationary! Having read up on sites and asked about abit on Twitter, the Compton Bay area seemed the best bet and was only some 15 minutes away from Yarmouth. Ideal!
A nice rural drive was soon completed and we arrived at Afton Down Car Park, with great views along the SW coast of the island, with big white cliffs and large stretches of pristine chalk grassland habitat.
We took a stroll up the slopes above the car park. They were surprisingly lacking in numbers of butterflies - though I did find a very fresh male Adonis Blue posing nicely!
Just above the car park something interesting wizzed past me. I shot off after it and eventually it landed - my first Glanville Fritillary! What a pristine one it was too! In no time though, it was off and away and out of sight. Now to find one a little less energetic - if that was possible, seeing how hot it already was by mid-morning.
I walked back down to the car park, spying another brief Glanville, another Adonis Blue and my first Common Blue of the year too. Back in the car park, Em immediately pointed down to the vegetation close to my car and there, in all it's glory was a sunbathing Glanville Frit with wings wide open...wow. Thankfully I was able to carefully approach and get some photos I was really happy with, before just standing and admiring it for a while.
This south-facing, relatively sheltered area of vegetation was actually the place to be, with 3-4 Glanville Fritillaries holding territory here. There was a decent supporting cast too, including the odd Adonis Blue popping down from the slopes, several Small Blue (past their best), Dingy Skippers, Brown Argus, Small Heath, Common Blue and my first Meadow Brown & Large Skippers of the year too.
It was time for a change of scenery and so we drove a couple of miles along the coast road to Compton Beach, to soak up some rays and have a cheeky swim. While we were there, amazingly a Glanville Fritillary dropped down onto the beach and joined us for a bit of sunbathing, just a couple of feet away. Brilliant! Photo below taken with my iphone.
After grabbing some lunch, visiting Ventnor and the Garlic Farm during the afternoon, we popped in again to Afton Down for one more quick look, before getting the 18:05 ferry. It was a bit more breezy than earlier and so the majority of butterflies had gone to ground. It didn't take me long though, to find a Glanville Fritillary just above the car Park, which I enjoyed one last time for about 15 minutes, as it went from flower to flower.
The perfect way to end a brilliant day out in the sun! I think Glanvilles are quickly becoming my favourite Fritillary - beautiful little creatures!
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