2.15 pm, 14th Sep 2020, the car drive next to my house. Full, bright sunshine on the hottest day of this month so far (27 degrees) and what do I see out of my kitchen window? A brown thrush-sized object flying about, a bit brown and a bit furry. Furry?!? Double-take. No. It was a bat to-ing and fro-...

Katrina - Thanks. I'm a bit of a sucker for butterfly pics backed with blue sky. Wurzel - Sometimes you just get lucky don't you? Mostly these critters spot you coming a mile off (well a couple of feet anyways) but once in a while you can get right in their face and since they arrange themselves so ...

Broxhead on a sunny Sunday morn - how lovely. With a wider search than I have done so far this year here, I found 12 Small Coppers, 3 of which were in a different location to the ones I have been seeing recently bringing my count here for this Autumn to 23. This sounds a lot but Broxhead in recent y...

Allan - I knew there were alba varieties of certain species of plant but until I saw a White Autumn Gentian I didn't even know they came in white. It wasn't mentioned in any of my plant books. Wurzel - Well Noar Hill and The Matterhorn do have one thing in common. They are both hills! :lol: Dave - I...

Noar Hill, 12th Sep 2020 The season in decline but still some interest here. First I'm glad to report the Ivy Bee colony is thriving again this year at Noar Hill. Next - a pair of Common Blues in-cop. A bit late in the year, but better late than never, eh? P1150630.JPG A couple of years back I went ...

Wurzel - It is fascinating to watch them do this. Small Coppers seem to have so many interesting behaviors. There's the pursuing walk, the Turkey Trot of the female, the Stalk Walk of the male, they tickle one another with their legs while in-cop and perform the wing-roll on occasion. I've even seen...

Broxhead again. 6 Small Coppers today but I didn't cover much ground to get them. Five of them I had probably already seen on previous recent visits but one was on its own not far from the reserve entrance and because I had seen none there so far this year, it must have been one new to me, bringing ...

Thanks Guys, yet another species I am lucky enough to have near me in reasonable numbers. Makes the end of the season interesting.

Katrina WOW. Just saw your mating pair of LT Blues. I have never even seen one, let alone a pair in cop. Not something I expect I will ever see. I bet you are over-the-moon about that. I am normally a bit stingy with my Mr Greens but you get 5 out of 5 for that shot. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :m...

Broxhead again this morning. I saw 12 Small Coppers today, 5 of which were in a different part of the common to last time so adding these to my count from before I get 19 in total here so far. (There was also one on the other side of the common in early summer - but this is not a good site for them ...

Thanks guys. Broxhead Common is a fine late year location for me because of the Small Coppers. I can normally guarantee fair numbers here in Sep/Oct and sometimes, in extended summers they can grow into large numbers.

Well it's September 1st and Autumn is here. We've had the weather of Autumn for some time already but today it was confirmed summer has ended. Why? Walking in Alice Holt woods this afternoon with my wife we came across a dozen species of fungi. As in previous years when I have posted about fungi, I ...

Broxhead today to see if the 3rd brood Small Coppers were about. They were - I counted 14 in all at the bottom of the hill, all of them fresh.
This one had extra dark markings and a blueish flush.
And this one had a fly perched on its wing.

St Catherine's Hill today during the sunny yet cool morning. My main reason for being here was to find yet more SS Skips. I wanted to find out if I could increase my annual record of sightings for this species. I already got my best ever day and location records for this species (30 at Oxenbourne). ...

Wurzel - Yes, I was surprised at the one that wrapped its wings around the flower-head. I think it might have been a way of stabilizing itself against the breeze that was blowing at the time. David - It is nice to have these two species near me. I know you have species near you that I don't have aro...

After a long bout of mostly awful weather - we had a break today. Cool and breezy for August but quite sunny. The bottom of Old Winchester Hill was fairly well sheltered from the worst of the breeze though. I was here for the Adonis Blue. Saw only three males and one possible female. P1150421.JPG I ...

Wurzel - You might call them Swinging Silver Spotted Skippers. (SSSS?)
David - They certainly are comical.
Dave - They certainly are cute.
Neil - They were getting very friendly.

They are in fact friendly, cute, comical, swinging silver spotted skippers!

Another day in paradise - well actually and hour and a half at Oxenbourne but not much difference when the Silver-spotted Skippers are at play! I started with a few more backlit shots. sss30b.jpg sss32b.jpg sss33b.jpg Then one posed for me on a berry. sss31.JPG I saw five in flight all at the same t...

Thanks Wurzel - I looked through the list of ab pics online and many of them are quite bizarre. Mine is rather ordinary by comparison. Just a bigger blob than normal.

Dave - A fantastic set of Brostreak pics. Love the last of the set and the pair on the berries but my favorite is the one set against the clear blue of the sky.