Thanks guys, yes lets hope this slow start erupts into a splendid bounty of springtime species very soon
13th April, Box Hill & Denbies
Lady luck was shining on me this week. Wednesday, my normal weekday off work was also predicted to be the best of the week with dizzy heights of 18 degrees predicted. Hence it was off to Surrey for my first trundle round a couple of my favourite sites for the year. Targets today were Orange-tips, Small Tortoiseshells, Green Hairstreak and Grizzled Skippers.
First stop was Burford Meadow at the base of Box Hill, where there was lots of fresh nettle growth and the Cuckoo flower is just coming into bloom. Not a single butterfly was seen for about half an hour. I finally flushed up a Peacock who was busy breakfasting on Lesser Celandine.
It was still cool and early enough to find a roosting Orange-tip so I carefully checked all the Cuckoo Flowers and Ramsons that littered the floor here for a little snoozing mottled green butterfly... nothing! I was just about to move on after another half hour when I flushed what turned out to be an unapproachable g*t of a Red Admiral. After several failed stalking attempts he decided he’d had enough of me and vanished at high speed across the field. I wandered off in his general direction only to have a Small Tortoiseshell zoom past me and settle in the grass. It was looking like a repeat performance with several failed stalking attempts until finally it found a patch it was happy with.
After a few head on shots I took a wide path round and crept up to get some decent uppersides at last.
![IMG_8355.JPG (1.02 MiB) Viewed 509 times My favourite part of a Small Tortoiseshell wing, the blue lunules](./files/thumb_13753_53faab473fd5144765acf3ec332b7a15)
- My favourite part of a Small Tortoiseshell wing, the blue lunules
Happy at bagging something I was actually after I set off up Box Hill to see if there was anything else about, surely the Speckled Woods would be out here but all I got were a few Brimstone flybys.
I did however get rather close to a Green Tiger Beetle, something I’ve never managed before, just a shame the sun was hiding at the time... although that’s also quite possibly the reason I was allowed so close in the first place.
Back to where I’d started the day I had another look to see if there were any Orange-tips on the wing but still a no show, I did find a Comma though
With it being early afternoon it was time to wander over to see what was flying over at Denbies, the walk nearly always throwing up several Specklies, nearly always but not today. The scenery was, nonetheless a complete joy to walk through.
Approaching Denbies Brimstones started appearing and coming to a patch of sunlit Bluebells I found 4 flitting from flower to flower crying out to be photographed.
I took several dozen since none were in any hurry and I’m glad I did, amongst all my snaps I managed what is to date my all time favourite Brimstone picture, I’m very chuffed with myself with this one!
So what was waiting for me at Denbies then.... well Butterfly wise, two hours of wandering gave me 1 Brimstone and 1 Peacock. If it wasn’t for the spectacular avian encounter I had, I would have left a little despondent.
Since I’d been looking closely for Hairstreaks and Skippers I hadn’t been paying much attention to the sky until a shadow passed over me, a low flying Red Kite. Now as any regular reader will know I do like Red Kites so he immediately grabbed my attention, especially since as he glided up the hillside he wasn’t gaining height until he was floating just inches from the ground. It was then that I noticed he wasn’t alone and as I looked around I realised there were 8 in total, 3 of which were coming very low to the ground. This was (by miles) the closest I’ve ever been to a Red Kite, I could see then scanning the ground as the floated past. I simply stood and watched in awe for about half an hour, snapping away when one came close.
I may not have seen what I was after but watching these made the trip more than worthwhile!