Late afternoon Warwickshire butterfly walk

 After a bright and sunny morning I persuaded my wife to join the boy and I on a walk around the fields near our house. I'd seen some butterflies flitting about in the back garden so knew that there should be plenty around: we weren't disappointed.

One of the most frequently observed butterflies of the day was the Ringlet (see right and below). We must have saw dozens of them over the course of our two hour walk.
 

We took a route along farm tracks that took us past lots of patches of brambles, they were rather popular with the butterflies. My wife enjoyed watching me chasing after the butterflies trying to take pictures before they sped off into the wind. I caught sight of a few white butterflies but couldn't get near enough to photograph or identify them.

 We also saw plenty or Small Tortoiseshells (right) as well as a smaller number Red Admirals (below). I kept mixing them up and my wife had to keep me right. I'm not sure why I mix them up, must be all the black, white and orange or red on them, I'm a bit colour blind. I'm glad the butterfly book that I have lists them in the same section, makes me feel slightly better.

 We saw a few splashes of orange around too being  Commas. These seemed happier to pose for pictures in easily accessible places.

We left the farm track to cross onto a right of way back across the fields towards our house. we started to see a few more types of butterflies. Below roght is what i think is a Meadow Brown. It looks a bit drab compared to it's more colourful colleagues but I guess that's why its categorised as a brown!

A butterfly that can't be accused of being drab is the Gatekeeper. We only saw one of these, I don't think that I've ever saw one of these before.

We didn't spot any other types of butterflies for the rest of the walk though we did see a few groups of caterpillars in webs. There were also larger ones next to these, I think that they might be Peacock caterpillars though I'm not entirely sure (see below).

After seeing the caterpillars it was clear that there was some poor weather on the horizon. I assured my wife that it was heading away from us. Luckily we just made it home seconds before the heavens opened. It was very lucky for me as I don't think my wife would be too keen to join me on any more trips out.

Six butterfly species! Seven if you count the caterpillar.