3 October 2011 Red Admirals were frequently seen all over the place, but not on all the Ivy as some of this (notably by the Pixie Path) was dominated by wasps. Speckled Woods were also frequent in shady spots. On Mill Hill, 16 Meadow Browns (11 on the lower slopes around midday) were counted on the ...

16 September 2011 More overcast than the previous day, but there were brief snatches of sunshine through the gaps in the clouds (>18.7 °C): the approaches to Mill Hill (Waterworks Road - Pixie Path) yielded a probable Green-veined White, at least one Speckled Wood, a worn Peacock (NW corner of Framp...

MikeOxon wrote:I think there is a 6th spot,though it is rather obscured. Always nice to have a good excuse to visit somewhere new, though.

Mike

The sixth spot regularly fades.

Hello, Good pics of the Scotch Argus. I have never seen this butterfly. 3 August 2011 A slow amble over the middle slopes of Mill Hill in the post-midday sunshine (22.8 °C) saw me venture in glades and thorn off my usual path, noting that Kidney Vetch was frequently seen in a small area (south of th...

Hi I guess one major difference on this particular section of the Dyke - where CHB are at their most prolific - compared to others, is the lack of grazing by rabbits...... Newmarket race course, through which the Dyke runs, take a dim view on million £ horses falling down rabbit holes when they rac...

I went out yesterday to check on our own CHB colony at the Devils Dyke, Newmarket, prompted by our discussions on Mill Hill. Numbers were in the hundreds - but remember our peak transect count a couple of years ago was over 1200; this year I suspect it will be less. Arrived later in the afternoon; ...

Thanks Mark, I call the scrub in the north-west of Mill Hill NR the Hawthorn scrub. The Pixie Path is off the Nature Reserve and my name for the footpath from the Waterworks Road south of the bridge. http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Slonk2011.htm This footpath number 3138 http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Pixielan...

Hello Mark, It is interesting how closely our numbers matched. If I did by normal passage trip I would have recorded just the 58 compared to your 60 Chalkill Blues. But because i wandered up the steeper slopes (mostly sitting down), I added another 20 estimated. I added a few other species the day b...

Hello, 1 August 2011 As I was not happy with my one acre transect count on Mill Hill the previous day, I went to the lower slopes and made a fresh count in very good conditions (humid, weak sunshine, 20.2 °C, ESE Force 4) and in the 20 minutes (timed) it took me to amble along the transect, I counte...

Hello, 1 August 2011 As I was not happy with my one acre transect count on Mill Hill the previous day, I went to the lower slopes and made a fresh count in very good conditions (humid, weak sunshine, 20.2 °C, ESE Force 4) and in the 20 minutes (timed) it took me to amble along the transect, I counte...

Hello, 31 July 2011 At the usual peak date for Chalkhill B lues on Mill Hill I went directly to the lower slopes in the late morning recording 37 (including four females) on the one acre transect before 11.20 am and an estimated 35 mostly males in the following 15 minutes. Most of these appeared fre...

Approaching would should be the peak period for the Chalkhill Blues on Mill Hill with hundreds, perhaps thousands fluttering around, it was dire that I only saw a fleeting view of one male in half an hour on the one acre transect. The turf at Mill Hill is too short to support high numbers of Chalkh...

Hi Perseus, Do the cattle range over all the site? Or are areas fenced-off and left completely untouched for all, or part of, the year? Could it be that grazing through the season does not produce the right type of sward, compared to that which suites Adonis....? Thomas and Lewington state (in Butt...

Hello, 27 July 2011 Approaching would should be the peak period for the Chalkhill Blues on Mill Hill with hundreds, perhaps thousands fluttering around, it was dire that I only saw a fleeting view of one male in half an hour on the one acre transect. Any changes in management in this time? Grazing ...

Hello, 27 July 2011 Approaching would should be the peak period for the Chalkhill Blues on Mill Hill with hundreds, perhaps thousands fluttering around, it was dire that I only saw a fleeting view of one male in half an hour on the one acre transect. It was cloudy and there were very a low frequency...

Chalk downland herbs

Hello, 24 June 2011 Parasitic plants were very much in evidence on Mill Hill, with Common Broomrape added to my local flora list, as well as Yellow Rattle, Red Bartsia and Eyebright. On an overcast day, the sun shone briefly and the breeze was still a Force 5. Predictably, butterflies were hiding bu...

Wicken Fen yesterday, windy and dull much of the time. Only two single sightings, Speckled wood and Red Admiral. Moved on to Anglesey Abbey where I saw the Butterfly below. Being relatively new to this I would like confirmation of the species/sex. It looks like a Wood white with its rounded forewin...

Hello, 15 May 2011 This year the expanse of Horseshoe Vetch, Hippocrepis comosa , on the lower slopes of Mill Hill was extremely disappointing. It was already past its prime and the flowers were only showing about 20% of their usual brilliance after an extended dry spring. The north-westerly directi...