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11th August, Aldbury Nowers
Well today I went after Brown Hairstreaks again and despite coming home with just over 60 pictures as opposed to the usual 200 – 300, some of them shall remind me of one of this year’s more special butterflying moments, but more of that in the next post.
Yesterday afternoon I went up to the nature reserve near Tring. It was mostly muggy, bright but cloudy weather but still warm enough to keep everything active. There were still a few tired looking Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers around, this female a mere ghost of her former self!
There were also a lot of Green-veined white, all too active for photos but it was the Lycids that ruled the roost. First to show off for my pleasure was a lovely male Small Copper. The new generation of Small Heaths are also emerging, this one eyeing up my every move as I took his photo! In the chalk meadow half of the reserve a few Chalkhills were fluttering around and both Brown Argus and Common Blues were present in good numbers, both probably into double figures. Another couple of Small Coppers showed up, both gorgeous ladies! Everything was obsessed with feeding from the Wild Marjoram and it was difficult to decide what to concentrate on, particularly with everything disturbing everything else.....that was until this little lady crawled up from the lower stems! I really wasn’t expecting to find a White-letter Hairstreak to turn up so late in the season. She was very compliant and wasn’t bothered about my presence at all and I spent some time watching her clamber from flower head to flower head.
After getting my fill I wandered through the wood to the steep chalk scrapes at the other end of the reserve. Here Brown Argus and Common Blue numbers were uncountable, they were all very active but I would hazard a guess at 30 – 40 of each. They were joined by several fresh Peacock, an occasional Comma and a couple of Brimstone. There were also some more Small Coppers and a couple of Essex Skippers Some of the female Common Blues were particularly lovely With this particular female seeming to be missing her diagnostic spot on her underside forewing. It was interesting to see that although virtually every species seen was pretty much obsessed with Marjoram flowers, the Brimstone never went near it and instead were obsessed with the Wild Basil Also seen were a couple of male Small Blues having a tussle but one last surprise awaited me as I was just about to leave the scrapes, a beautiful fresh male Common Blue with some very (Lysandra)-esqu hindwing spotting, something I’ve never seen in the flesh, absolutely stunning! A fine end to a fabulous afternoon
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