Thanks to the spotting abilities of Constanti Stefanescu of the Catalan Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, who was here at the Croft last month, and with the help of Christopher Wheat and his colleagues who were over here on a research project, we’ve found a colony of Marsh Fritillaries Euphydryas aurinia at the Croft. They are nesting above the house, in a honeysuckle bush (Lonicera spp.) The nests are the grey spiders web objects on the bush.
We have no marshes – the land is dry as a bone – but the “Marsh” Fritillaries seem perfectly happy here. In the UK the Marsh Fritillary is rare. Here, now I know where to look, they are everywhere.
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