Glad it's of help, Wurzel
Thanks, Ernie, it's a lovely looking frit for sure
Me too, David, I thought we might see Weaver's or Queen of Spain.
Thanks for your vote for the Spotted frit, Dave
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Corfu 1971 eh
Old Winchester Hill - 21st Aug.
A visit to OWH today found us walking along the top path from the carpark. In previous years we’ve seen Silver-spotted Skippers and Adonis Blue along here, but not today! We did however find two nice Painted Ladies and a few small Heaths.
Making our way to the hill fort we passed through the gate into the south meadow, noting that sheep were already grazing here. At the top of the meadow it appeared that the sheep had grazed off a lot of the wild flowers, leaving little nectar for insects. Further down The slope we found more flowers, including plenty of Scabious and Marjoram, and that’s where we found our first Adonis Blues and some Silver-spotted Skippers, mainly males of each.
When I reached the bottom of the meadow I bumped into the guy walking his transect. We got chatting about the Adonis Blues we had seen and he informed me that these were a result of a 2012 introduction. Previous introductions had apparently taken place in 1981 and 2002, which had both failed. Apparently with the 1981 introduction the butterfly had at first flourished with it’s numbers building quickly but then just as quickly it dramatically declined until in 1988 there were no recorded sightings. This pattern was also repeated with the second introduction. Apparently since the 2012 introduction numbers have been building slowly, for reasons unknown, and there was hope that this time a stable population would result. His parting words were that if this introduction did fail it may be the last attempt!
By this time it was getting late so we made our way to the bottom of the car park slope, seeing a flypast by a single Clouded yellow along the way. Here we found more Adonis males and some Chalkhill Blues in reasonable condition, along with several mating pairs. We also found two mating pairs of Adonis which was good to see and bodes well for their future. What really surprised us however was the amount of Silver-spotted skippers in this area. Along with many males were some very fresh looking females, some egg-laying in the grasses.
Numbers wise we saw twenty Adonis Blue males and a single female in the south meadow, and eight Silver-spotted Skippers.
At the car park slope we saw ten Adonis males and two mating pairs. Silver-spotted Skippers numbered at least 30 plus, but that’s right up the slope of the hillside to the gate at the top, however they whizz around so fast that counting them is far from easy!
![P1030003Resize.JPG (1.34 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Painted Lady No.1](./files/thumb_11970_b3f63f0177caa884ce9ecb80f6768099)
- Painted Lady No.1
![P1020986Resize.JPG (1.23 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Painted Lady No.2](./files/thumb_11970_971b054e16743f146264aed1b89e9653)
- Painted Lady No.2
![P1030020Resize.JPG (1.36 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Meadow Brown](./files/thumb_11970_a3df0000b353b52a524ebc71603aa71d)
- Meadow Brown
![P1310103Resize.JPG (1.2 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Common Blue](./files/thumb_11970_5c1ffe64a75873d516d0ee6b1c7d8828)
- Common Blue
![P1020495Resize.JPG (1.29 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Adonis Blue Male](./files/thumb_11970_c6a71494d55b06a0d560eda7ef18543c)
- Adonis Blue Male
![P1020493Resize.JPG (1.24 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Adonis Blue Male](./files/thumb_11970_4a5f83eed127a1c6acbca302e9f242f3)
- Adonis Blue Male
![P1030048Resize.JPG (1.47 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Adonis Blue Male](./files/thumb_11970_ec74060dd1c5e3810f81fbf80599c60a)
- Adonis Blue Male
![P1310091Resize.JPG (1.4 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Adonis Blue Female](./files/thumb_11970_3541c0e83207ca93b8755f07df22498b)
- Adonis Blue Female
![P1020528Resize.JPG (1.4 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Adonis mating pair](./files/thumb_11970_be7eb09080bb9579b65c248ddb58d5ef)
- Adonis mating pair
![P1030087Resize.JPG (1.33 MiB) Viewed 1587 times A quite fresh looking Chalkhill Blue](./files/thumb_11970_3edd0ae1ec3910f7daa05aa784bad4e4)
- A quite fresh looking Chalkhill Blue
![P1020470Resize.JPG (1.12 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Chalkhill mating pair](./files/thumb_11970_6b59c4d763810eed7ca13aae47973bba)
- Chalkhill mating pair
![P1020488.jpgAResize.JPG (1.21 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Male SSSkipper](./files/thumb_11970_0851eca2586c8b6f83e3ffd52e8d8daa)
- Male SSSkipper
![P1310173.jpgBResize.JPG (1.6 MiB) Viewed 1587 times Fresh female SSSkipper](./files/thumb_11970_8e9e551d12321b7aea5fc031a66b2949)
- Fresh female SSSkipper