BUTTERFLY - Speckled Wood

The Speckled Wood (pararge aegeria) is a classic butterfly to spot in or around woodland areas (similar to the Ringlet). This picture was captured in one of our fields, in a meadow on the border of a woodland planting. The butterflies flutter through glades of sunshine in the woods and come out to sit in the sun.

The species rapidly declined over the last few hundreds years, but has seen a remarkable resurgance in the last twenty years. This is possibly because of the resurgance in tree planting after centuries of woodland areas being cleared for agriculture.