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Wurzel, the Goldfinch shots are some of my hit and hope shots, 9 times out of 10 they're deleted before they make it on my computer but occasionally some pass my judgement unscathed
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Goldie, yup the sun is still shining on us down here and this week looks like some places are going to be mid twenties again
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David. The recent run of warm autumns and late winters seem to have encouraged strong third broods of Walls along the south coast but it will only take a blip one year with a cold autumn to knock them for six. At the end of the day they can only respond to what the weather hands them, and the current weather pattern seems to encourage a successful third brood, but who knows what will happen over the next few years
7th October, Sussex yet again part 1
After the biblical rains on Saturday (possibly a slight over exaggeration) I was once again tempted down into Sussex to see what had survived. Transport options were limited with a combination of Sunday service and works taking place and the only option left was a 9am arrival at Shoreham, somewhat early for most species but a few reasonably fresh Specklies were making an early start to the day’s activities.
Once on the hillside of Mill Hill I made a beeline for the sheltered bottom corner which would hopefully offer plenty of protecting from the chilly northerly that was blowing today. Indeed it did and it helped significantly with the local temperature. It would seem I arrived just in time to catch the first few butterflies waking up. Small Copper and Common Blue numbers slowly picking up as the morning progressed.
Next to wake up were the Brown's with Meadow and Wall both giving me the slip. The Wall in particular lead me a merry dance, a nice fresh female too. With 5 species already seen I moved up to the top to see if anything was breakfasting on the now famous clump of Hemp Agrimony. It was clearly too early up here though, not being as sheltered as lower down, the patch of flowers were falling victim to the chilly breeze. Still I had plenty of time to kill so I wandered the shrubby, sheltered paths, noting the occasional Common Blue and Small Heath.
Eventually I disturbed a sleepy Red Admiral which floated around and settled frequently, clearly still not fully charged. One thing that struck me with this relaxed pose in the grass is just how well the pattern works at distracting the eye. The red bands form a circle, drawing your eyes away from the vulnerable body which vanishes within the uniform central brownness and towards the bright white spots at the wing tips, so clever.
Looking for basking Cloudies along the top path I found a particularly striking female Common Blue, even in flight she looked unusual with an almost white rim to her hind wing.
She eventually gave me the slip but almost immediately my eye’s caught sight of a yellow shark fin poking out of the short turf up ahead. It turned out to be another male (I’ve still not seen a female Cloudie this year). He was still warming up and settled frequently, never perfectly but a few more snaps to add to the years collection.
Back in the bottom corner Blues ruled the roost, some of them still looking quite fresh.
One final wander back up the top found the Hemp Agrimony still bereft of butterflies, just a single Red Admiral who scarped quickly at my approach. Presumably its compatriots had left for warmer climes, and who can blame them after the previous days effort weather-wise! Across the site Small Heath had now become rather numerous and there reasonable numbers of Meadow Browns, all females as far as I could tell.
I suspected there was still time for things to liven up more before the day ended, but I wanted to see if I could find any of the Cloudies Trevor had seen on Friday down at Southwick, so I attempted to leave Mill Hill. I say attempted because I kept getting distracted. Firstly I found a lovely Painted Lady, who simply demanded my attention, closely followed by a Small White and then a Comma buzzed me behind the bottom car park. If my maths is correct that makes 11 species (not ten as I stated in Katrina’s PD last night).
My usual route around the horse field on the south side of the bypass also held distractions in the form of several fresh Red Admirals enjoying the masses of Ivy found here.