Hello all,
Had an early start this morning at Dungeness,my main aim was to find two plants that I,ve tried for in the past,and never managed to find,had a quick look for roosting Small Coppers
in the moat ,and was lucky enough to find 5,mainly on dead flower heads and teasel heads,then I headed out to the long pits,most of the time was spent staring at the ground for the two tiny ,prostrate plants namely Small flowered Buttercup and suffocated clover,and after a bit of searching I found both Well pleased!!,by this time ,around 7.am the sun was actually quite warm ,and at 7.30 am I saw my first Copper on the wing ,and between the far end of the long pits and the bird observatory,i counted 41,and all before 9am !I also found 3 grizzled Skips;
One of the Coppers ,a female was very oddly marked and very similar to Radiata, funnily enough the obs; warden found a very similar male during the week ,which Hoggers re-found today (see his diary), also found another with very long rays on the hindwings,which seem to be turning up more regularly. regards Allan.W.