Thanks
Dave, yes that little spot is amazingly reliable. If I lived locally I'd be there every day I think!
10th October (part 2)
The wind had picked up considerably by now but my usual route around the horse field afforded plenty of shelter and fresh Red Admirals popped up regularly, mostly flying out of reach, but a few hung around to feast on the Ivy and made for good targets. This one has the extra blue scaling in the black dots along the hindwing border, as also noted by Millerd in his recent posts, making in an ab
caerulocellata. However having looked through my back catalogue, I’ve seen that this is rather common and like Neil Freeman, I’m reluctant at best to call it an ab. Much like
bialbata , it seems quite contradictory to call such a commonly occurring variation an aberration. Regardless of that though it made for a very good subject
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Leaving them to their feasting I moved onto Mill Hill proper where I found the hillside to be completely devoid of butterflies, not so much as a fleeting flyby. Considering the recent deterioration of the weather though I wasn’t particularly surprised by this, plus it was rather windswept now the wind had picked up. Things did improve somewhat when I made my way to the sheltered paths along the northern edge that border the farmland leading up to the top car park. Once again sheltered patches of flowering Ivy gave me a reason to stop and point my camera and I added another species to the days tally, a couple of Peacock had joined the Red Admirals, the freshest of which must surely be a second brood insect.
In the wooded area at the top some Speckled Wood were to be found, bringing me to a respectable seven species for the day.
Nothing else was seen here so I made my way back down the path, stopping of once again to watch the Red Admirals and Peacocks.
The walk back along the slope was unsurprisingly uneventful again but near the bottom car park species eight was waiting for me
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It was still quite early so I did go back the Southwick for a second go with the Clouded Yellows, but by the time I arrived it had clouded over quite a bit sending everything to an early bed.
On the plus side it did give me an excuse to leave early and miss the London rush hour. All things considered, if this was going to be my last day butterflying of the year, it was a rather successful one
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