Thanks Jenks, I'm glad you enjoy my diary but rather than a Copper King I see myself very much as one of their loyal subjects!
What a shame, Goldie! I'm spoilt of course as I can visit Dungeness and I tend to forget that other enthusiasts like yourself have struggled to find any Coppers at all this year!
Not so nice today, cloudy and windy, but I decided to look in on the male Copper that I've been keeping an eye on over the last 3 weeks.
Here's another view of his territory
A south facing sun trap which, as I noticed today, is largely sheltered from the wind.
He perches on pebbles in a shingle patch to the right of the brambles as you look at the above photo
There he has good all-round vision and the pebbles hold the warmth of the sun
He has held this territory now for at least 20 days!
I watched him for 2 hours this morning. He would shift about the patch, changing his pebble perch on a number of occasions. He also would fly on regular trips around his territory on the look out for other Coppers, and always return to the favoured shingle to perch.
In between these reconnaissance flights he did the "Stalk Dance" although for him this was mainly a Tap Dance across the Brambles.
This is the sort of pattern of event:
1049 - Stalk Dance
1057 - Stalk Dance
1101 - Reccy
1104 - Reccy
1108 - Reccy
1111 - Stem Dance
Perching on the shingle in between.
He examined a great many of the plants and leaves on his patch
Even bare Bramble stems
Quickly tapping his feet against the plant surface.
He flew about 40 feet from his pebble perch to Stem Dance down some grass!
And he took an interest in many kinds of plant
It is fascinating to watch
I recently read that Red Admirals "taste" sugar with their feet so I think Small Coppers must have similar chemical detectors in their feet. But quite what they are testing for I haven't a clue!
I saw 14 Small Coppers today
But of them all it is this chap that's my favourite
He's rather battered but he has kept hold of his own domain now for at least 20 days and I think that's great!