Thank you everyone.
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The Marsh Frit at Bentley was a real surprise and within a few minutes of arrival too. An interesting reappearance (if it ever went away of course). Some of the Common Blues I've been seeing have been quite lovely, but like everything else, in the constant good weather we've been having they are active for 12 hours a day and become worn very quickly. I think they all emerge and couple over a shorter spell of time too and then get to work laying! With reasonably decent weather between now and August we could be in for bumper second broods. Fingers crossed...
Saturday 26th May. Another excursion today, but I put myself in the care of TfL for the day and went down to Hutchinsons Bank by public transport. As ever, Mr Sp0ck was at hand to provide a commentary on the site , and said that no 100% confirmed sightings of Glanvilles had been made this year yet, though he had confidence in a small handful of "flyby" sightings. We had another of these while I was there, but it was really inconclusive (a rapidly moving orange-coloured butterfly of the right sort of size). To me it could have been a new Comma, or possibly a Painted Lady - a three-way split of equal likelihood in my book.
Never mind the Glanvilles though - this is a terrific place to visit. Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Green Hairstreaks, Common Blues, Brown Argus, Holly Blues, Small Heaths, Brimstones, GVW, Speckled Woods, a Peacock, a Red Admiral and even a couple of Orange Tips. Add to this my first Large Skipper of the year and hundreds of Small Blues... and you get the picture.
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Which of course is what I did - lots of them, and it has taken a while to whittle them down.
Where to start? Well, here is the sign at the main way in, at the end of Farleigh Dean Crescent.
Immediately on from this is a sheltered and sunny gully where many of the above-listed species can be found, and where Glanvilles have been seen in the past. The rest of the site is chalk hillside vaguely divided into compartments with interlinking paths. Near the bottom of the hillside along to the east is a large area that has been "scraped", removing most of the topsoil and exposing the chalk. The area is full of kidney vetch and also home to many Small Blues. I saw dozens of females laying on the flower buds.
Fresh males were much harder to find.
Small Blues can actually be seen anywhere, and it was along the bottom path parallelling Featherbed Lane that I came across several puddling in various spots. I found two together at one point, and as I watched, they were joined by a Holly Blue. One Small Blue was markedly larger than the other, but The Holly Blue dwarfed them both - a great combination!
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The bottom path is also where I came across the Large Skipper - what a splendid colour this species is when absolutely fresh.
Mr Sp0ck promised
taras Grizzlies, but I sadly only found the normal ones.
There was a mating pair of Common Blues, and a separate rather nicely-cloured female.
Finally, to round off, one of the many Dingy Skippers from across the site...
...a rather nice Small Heath...
...and a fairly fresh Green Hairstreak with a full line of white spots.
All in all, another great day out!
Dave