Wicked Whites (and Bad Beehaviour)

Mark G had seen Marbled Whites earlier at Chettisham Meadows so, despite some extensive cloud cover, I took a look this morning.  At the reserve meadows half a dozen were active, they some how manage to fly appearing weak and flimsy but manage to cover a very large area in a short space of time without resting.  I took plenty of pics but none that I was happy with.  Returning to the car I had a look in the adjacent rough meadow and there were at least a dozen flying within a small area of grass.  These were much more confiding and really allowed us time to admire their striking monochrome complexity and I got the open wing shots that I was hoping for. On the walk we also saw 25+ Meadow Browns, 15 Ringlet, 4 White-letter Hairstreaks, 1 Purple Hairstreak, 3 Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Red Admiral, 1 Comma, 7 Large Skipper and 1 Essex Skipper.

On the short journey back to Stuntney we called in to see if there were any flower heads left on the Bee Orchids off Norfolk Road, Ely.  We found only 1 but how lovely it was.