Hello all,
The last couple of afternoons,after work,i've been making the most of the warm,bright weather,and visiting another area,of the Dungeness peninsula,namely the Gulleys
at Dengemarsh, an excellent birding area,at certain times of the year,but equally a quality butterfly site, at the moment and for several weeks now the Common Blues ,have been flying in very high numbers, and I have seen 100+ on 3 or 4 occasions,,on Monday it was very warm,with a breeze,and as the Blues were going to roost they sat obligingly with their wings open,catching the last of the evening sun, strangely yesterday (Tuesday ) probably warmer still,and not a breath of wind ,all they seemed to be interested in was nectaring,mainly on the Birds foot trefoil,that grows in abundance, but practically none sat open-winged, also a few pristine Small Coppers (9) on the wing,a few Brown Args, two meadow Browns (last men standing !) my first Clouded Yellow of the year,a few Wheatears moving about,a couple of Yellow Wagtails,and 2 Raven making a bee-line for the power station,we seem to be quite lucky down here in Kent,particularly in the Dungeness area,because here the Small Coppers and Common Blues,luckily,seem to be bucking the national trend.
Regards Allan.W.