Mike - re orchids lying low for decades. I am glad you told me that because I once saw a super-rare subspecies of fly orchid 5 years ago and despite looking for it repeatedly in subsequent years in the same place I have never seen it bloom again. As you say, its probably "waiting its moment&quo...

Folly Hill - 3rd Aug 2018 The realm of the Grayling.JPG Today it was back to Grayling. I wanted to see if I could beat my previous annual record for this species, so I explored another part of Folly Hill heath where I had seen them in previous years and sure enough there they were. I counted 11 toda...

Goldie - Thanks for your comments. I am really lucky in that one of my closest nature reserves is so good for brown hairstreaks, which means I can return again and again whenever I want. If I don't see them one day, there is always the next.

Best Regards,

Wurzel - I have only seen the helice twice, last year and this - both times in exactly the same spot and at around the same time of year. Quite a coincidence.

Lovely SS Blue pics, Trevor. I have only managed one shot of this species so far this year and that was only luck. They really do love that Scabious don't they?

Butterflies aside that's a great pic of Corfe Castle.

Its like the Common Blues around the car park were laying siege to it.

I love that "sneaky" way of getting butterfly pics, Wurzel and it seems to work a treat.

Mike, sad about the Frog Orchids but great pic of a SS Blue.

Old Winchester Hill - 2nd Aug 2018 aa.JPG If I had to choose the best month to visit Old Winchester Hill it would have to be August and today was one of those amazing days. Firstly the Chalkhill Blues are out at peak around now. There must have been over 1,500 of them - the hillside shimmered blue. ...

Wurzel - or is it proportional to its rarity?!? I may have built-in a double negative in my choice of words. Never mind - you catch my drift I hope.

Wurzel - Thanks. Yep its Brostreak every time when deciding what pic to take - you get so little opportunity to see them down low for such a long while. I have come across an odd "rule-of-thumb" when it comes to retaining butterfly pictures. For me at least. The number of pics I have of a ...

Great set of Grayling shots, Dave. But the image that stays with me is the Common Blue with the one stunted hind-wing. Amazing.

Noar Hill - 1st Aug 2018 DSCF9751.JPG Back to being hot again (around 24 degrees) and the butterflies were enjoying it because it was not 31 degrees! I must say I agree with them. I spent three hours here today, my bout of heat-stroke well and truly over now. My count of Brostreaks increased. I saw ...

Interesting idea Wurzel. It would certainly explain why so many are up in the trees. I think I have counted 6 doing this now this year.

Longmoor - 31st July 2018 DSCF9729.JPG Here for the second time this year for the Grayling and this time I was successful. I counted 8 in total of which 6 were in a group around the trees growing out of the Bronze-Age burial barrow. Tumulus (2).jpg Six in one place is good because I could see the in...

I seem to remember you telling me you got Large Blues wing-rolling this year - so you must have gone back at some point between then and now and struck lucky? Plus - Corn Bunting. You don't see those every day of the week. Every cloud has a silver lining so they say. :D Or does that pun not go down ...

Summary of forum entries on the wing-roll topic as of 29th July 2018 Its a wet day all day today so I thought I would trawl through the entries people have made regarding the wing roll behaviour of the Lycaenidae family and create a summary to date. I wish to keep this summary as short as possible w...

Summary of forum entries on the wing-roll topic as of 29th July 2018 Its a wet day all day today so I thought I would trawl through the entries people have made regarding the wing roll behaviour of the Lycaenidae family and create a summary to date. I wish to keep this summary as short as possible w...

It seems a reasonable all-encompassing catchment category for the effect. Thanks Wurzel.

Noar Hill - 28th July 2018 DSCF9676.JPG Well we finally had a thunderstorm in the night after many weeks of dry days. It was bright by 8 am although a cool 13 degrees and it was very breezy. It was the breeze rather than the temperature I think that was stopping it being a hairstreaky day. I saw one...