Wednesday 13 June 2012

Wednesday 13th. June 2012

Well , after much messing about with parts , the garage rang mid morning to say that the car was ready for collection . After being revived following the presentation of the bill , and collecting my gear from home , I headed for Hutchinson's Bank , with the blue skies rapidly turning cloudy . By this time of year , the place should be alive with butterflies , especially Small Blues after good numbers
being found last year , but during the visit , I found about 10 specimens of this the smallest of all
British butterflies . The top one is a very fresh male and the lower a female , being almost brown on the topwing , but I'm still waiting for a paired shot . Other species seen were almost all in ones , like
this Dingy Skipper , living up to it's name , Grizzled Skipper , Common Blue (6) , Brown Argus ,
Small Heath (5) , Brimstone -female pictured , Large and Small White and Speckled Wood (2) was as good as it got . Still not large amounts of nectar about , the Kidney Vetch , foodplant of the Small
Blue is all in flower now , along with Greater Yellow Rattle , as it's name suggests , larger than it's
relative , and for which the site is well known . A couple of chalk grassland specialists , in the form

of Wild Mignonette / Reseda lutea and Bladder Campion / Silene vugaris , were also found . Along
the bridleway , the large caterpillar of the Drinker Moth ( Not ! - many thanks to Spock for the correct ID - an Oak Eggar moth caterpillar , Cheers ) posed next to a 35mm film canister . During the visit , I met up with Martin , who does a weekly transect on the site , and has done for many years . It was good to chat about the site , whilst waiting for the sun to reappear . As I got back to the car , there was some crashing about in the woodland , and two Roe Deer appeared on the verge . One
dived straight back into the woods , but the other stopped to have a look at me , before he took off
along the woodland edge . And the car ? It performed perfectly , hopefully it won't play up again , or give me any more heart attacks .

6 comments:

Warren Baker said...

At least some of the flutters are hanging on Greenie, but more rough weather on its way :-)

Envious as ever about that Brimstone shot :-)

Spock said...

Hi Greenie was great to meet up at last.

The Caterpillar looks like a fully grown Oak Eggar Moth, a very good record for the site.

We dont have many records for the site 28th July 1974, 4th July 1989 & 2nd July 1993 for the adult moths.

Rob said...

A superb Small Blue, Greenie - the blue scales show so well.

Marc Heath said...

Fantastic set of shots Greenie, cracking Small Blue shots.

ShySongbird said...

I am glad to hear the car is behaving and that you eventually recovered from the wallet shock!

I too like the Small Blue, very delicate looking.

Lovely photos of the Roe Deer.

Not one butterfly, damsel or dragon to be seen here yesterday!

Alan Pavey said...

Great post Greenie, some lovely shots and another interesting mix of flora and fauna.