Thank you, Mike.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
No, those brown butterflies can be very interesting in their variety. And as they aren't averse to a bit of cloud and the odd drop of rain, so much the better in an English summer.
Sunday 29th June: Not such a brown day today - more a case of purple, blue, white and dark green...
I left home at half eight, confident that the cloud cover would move off within an hour or two as the Met Office promised. They were right, and my arrival at Botany Bay coincided with sunshine. There were already several folk in the wood eagerly looking for Purple, but they were concentrating up the top of the hill so I decided to focus my efforts back towards the bridge, and down the other path from the triangle. Good idea! I soon came upon a chap (whose name I didn't get) down on the ground with a male Purple Emperor. Despite a variety of angles, the full purple eluded us, but we had it down for nearly a quarter of an hour, and it had been there a good fifteen minutes before I arrived, apparently.
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I wandered back up the hill and then down again. With no one else in sight, not far from the first sighting I came across another grounded male, intent on a large and disgusting-looking piece of poo. This individual resolutely sat with wings closed for some while, even after the other group of observers had arrived and began to photograph it. It took the arrival of Neil Hulme to make it completely open up, and the full purple came into view.
After well over half an hour on the ground, it took off to a hazel bush to clean its tongue - I'm not surprised... Neil set off to seed the path with a disgusting fishy concoction, hopeful of enticing others down, leaving a trail that might cause you to think some incontinent and possibly seriously ill animal had been along... However, though I saw at least two Emperors up in the trees, no others came down before I left at 1230.
Next stop was at Denbies. The sun had become a bit hit and miss again, but there were dozens and dozens of Marbled Whites flying, basking and scrabbling around in the grass.
It was fairly breezy too. I also saw Ringlets, Meadow Browns, Skippers of several sorts, Small Heaths, a couple of fast-flying Dark Green Fritillaries and at least a dozen Small Tortoiseshells. These were mostly settled along the top path, flying up as you reached them and settling further on.
In amongst all the fluttering black-and-white, I noticed a flash of icy blue - the first Chalkhill of the year.
I saw four altogether, but no doubt they will be the first of a great many more if the last two summers are repeated.
Finally, to Box Hill for refreshment and a look around there too. Now, I thought the Tour de France was in Yorkshire... Driving up Box Hill, you would never know it. It's a bit hairy at the best of times, but it was very tricky today with so many cyclists. I walked out onto Burford Spur: as with Denbies, there were lots of Marbled Whites, perhaps a greater concentration here, even. Every last bit of knapweed had at least one in residence.
Added to this, there were Dark Green Fritillaries whizzing around everywhere, diving into the grass when the sun went in and then taking off madly at an alarming rate if disturbed.
They often seemed to seek each other's company when going to ground, though when active in the sun, there was many a tussle and chase.
Great characters.
Dave