Snake's Head Fritillary

I've never seen Snake's Head Fritillary in the wild and have always wanted but never quite managed to get to Criklade in Wiltshire to see them in their thousands. I still haven't been there but when I found out that there was a small colony on a Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve not far from Bridport I went over there straight away. And when I say small colony I mean small as this year it appears to only consist of two plants and both of these are of the rarer white form. They looked lovely in the early morning sunshine bejeweled in a heavy dew.

Snake's Head Fritillary - Fritillaria meleagris

I've added this close up of some of the water droplets. I love the way that they act like tiny lenses showing a miniature inverted image.

I took a few shots with my 400mm lens from its minimum focusing distance of 3 metres away and they came out really well, I love the 'dreamy' feel to them.