Tuesday 7th May was a better prospect. The early sunshine looked as if it would stay around longer, and it wasn't as cold. I headed for Denbies, being perhaps the closest of the really good sites within reach of here, and following Susie's report of yesterday.
As ever, Small Coppers greeted me as I walked down the edge of Steers Field, and today they were tussling with a couple of Dingy Skippers and a Common Blue.
In fact, Dingies were by far the commonest butterfly on the hillside today, with dozens seen in every part of the site.
Green Hairstreaks were also to be seen regularly, with several hotspots other than the usual one by the steps: females were also down in the grass almost anywhere.
- unusual to see two so close together: showing off the colour variation, not entirely down to the angle of the light.
Also fairly ubiqitous were Small Heaths. Grizzled Skippers were fewer in number than last week, and looking rather worn now, but still fairly common along the bottom of the slope. Finally, there were the Blues: a handful of Common Blues were around, again mostly along the bottom of the hillside:
However, the Adonis were also out (my first this year), encountered slightly more often than the Common Blues, and more widespread.
- there were a number with slight wing defects like this one
Numbers of both should build as the weather improves. There was one curious sighting: As I lined up a shot of another Adonis, I became aware that it was not alone. Crawling up behind it from the grass was a Grizzled Skipper, which carried on until it was also mostly in the sun, but somehow not shading the larger butterfly. They stayed like this for a while - a very unusual juxtaposition.
Also seen was this unusual green-bodied spider, which was lurking in one of the bushes frequented by the Green Hairstreaks - it certainly appeared to have consumed a few, judging by its colour...
There were also good numbers of burnet moths - I think this may be the five-spot species, but happy to be corrected.
A much better day again.
Dave
Returning home, at around half four a patch of blue sky appeared to be approaching, so I headed off onto my local patch. There was virtually nothing flying here either, though I did spot a GVW up in the trees, and a single Speckled Wood in a patch of sunlight. However, my arrival in the main open area near the motorway coincided with a particularly strong burst of sun, and before long I succeeded in finding two Brown Argus, one male and one female. Whether these two are the mating pair from a few days earlier, I can't be sure, but there were several bouts of courtship behaviour which led nowhere.
a nice problem to have 
.
