16th May, Denbies
This week’s weather didn’t look too promising at all but I decided to risk a trip to see the Adonis, and hopefully some Brown Argus, on Denbies Hillside. It seemed to be touch and go as to whether I was going to get drenched or not but It hadn’t rained by the time I got to the hillside a little before 10 and the clouds were beginning to break. It was however, rather windy, windier than the average Denbies day in fact.
A few Dingy Skippers and Small Heath were active on arrival, getting battered in the wind but I couldn’t find any Green Hairstreaks, most likely hunkered down somewhere safe.
Moving out onto the hillside proper I began to get a bad feeling, the wind was gusting very strongly across the valley and even though the sun was beginning to appear and warm the air, what was flying was mostly being whipped past me or being blown ragged and dumped in the turf. Just when I was thinking my luck was out though, one of the things getting unceremoniously dumped in the turf was blue! He was doing his best to go about his business though.
A few minutes later another one got blown past, this time a brighter blue, at last
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
. Like the Common, he was doing his best in the adverse conditions too.
After him they started to appear with increasing regularity, usually from under my feet, the wind forcing them to bask down in the turf so I didn’t see most of them until it was too late. Overall though, dogged determination succeeded in getting better results than I was expecting from the dozen or so males I managed to see.
I also came across a beautiful female Common Blue, and I wasn’t her only admirer, a male Adonis thought her equally beautiful and spent a fair time gazing longingly at her whilst she fed before chasing after her when she moved on
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
.
I managed a couple of female Adonis too, both beautiful ladies.
I wish all Adonis females had that much blue scaling around the lunules, it would make things so much easier in their second brood, sifting them out of the Chalkhill ladies!
And then a mating pair of Common’s.
It was at this point that I met up with my Chauffeur for the rest of the day,
Susie. Before leaving for the next port of call we had another look for Green Hairstreak, finding two who weren’t particularly cooperative and loads of Rose Chafers.
A Male Brimstone stopped by and posed for me whilst Susie was otherwise occupied
then we moved to a more sheltered spot lower down the slope for one final search. A single Grizzled flew past, the only one I saw, a female Green Hairstreak darted around and finally I got my second target of the day, a couple of Brown Argus taking my year’s total to an impressive 25 species!
One thing I will say, the recent rain has done the world of good to the site. The ground still looks a little on the dry side but it looks significantly greener than my previous visits this year. Fingers crossed it's enough to feed the summer generations that are currently munching their way towards pupation!
It was gone 11 now and time to head off to look for species number 26…