Whilst we were out on 10 Tors training on Saturday we came across a marsh fritillary project run by South West Lakes Trust. Marsh fritillaries are one of the very special and very rare butterflies that live on Dartmoor. The caterpillars feed on devil’s bit scabious plants and the adults fly in May and June.
Information board on the northern shores of Fernworthy reservoir
I have never seen a marsh fritillary in the UK but I did manage to photograph this one over 15 years ago in Portugal
The project is using these Dartmoor ponies to manage the rhos pastures (wet flower rich Dartmoor meadows) where they live
The area consists of open grassland and patches of scrub – along with a very useful boardwalk
Great multi stemmed moss covered trees
Lovely light through the trees to the pastures beyond
I will definitely be going back in June to see if I can find and photograph the butterflies
A Dartmoor blog 
Good to know the pay-and-display carpark fees we pay at Fernworthy are being well used to support such a project (or if people don’t like having to find coins membership of SW Lakes Trust is a charitable donation to a worthy cause that also gets free parking at all their sites across Devon & Cornwall)
Adrian, If you are in the Salisbury Plain area in May/June I’ll be happy to show you our Marsh Fritillaries.