Cheers Nick
When it comes to Smeesex I'm pretty confident about the ID's, but not confident enough all the time to actually say what I think it is
Cheers Neil
That's interesting to know I'll have to do a bit more reading up
Cheers Pauline
If I had been using film that would have been a very, very expensive shot to get - the bin would have been full!
This has been a long time coming as I was behind with my PD but catching up and then disaster struck - I had to go on a family camping holiday to the Isle of Purbeck with the possibility of Wall Browns, Graylings and Lulworth Skippers - oh the torture
However that means that I'm even further behind on my PD
14-07-2014 Larkhill and The Devenish
This week started as pretty much the rest of the week progressed. Where possible I’d stop at Larkhill in the morning and then do a mad rush to The Devenish in the afternoon...
This morning I checked the end of the Western path first and stumbled across a lovely second brood Green-veined White, it looked glorious in the morning sun. A few Marbled Whites still hung around looking past their best now but otherwise it was quite quiet.
Hence I moved over to the Northern path which was quieter still apart from the very entrance which held a few Hedge Browns. Both males showed some nice variations with the first having more of a figure of 8 than an eye on the fore-wing. The second was an ‘excessa’ (I think that’s what they’re called) only this had 2 dots on the left fore-wing and only one on the right. I headed onto work ready to face the day after my 5 minute stop-off.
The journey to The Devenish gets more and more torturous each time I make it. I always seem to have a smooth run at the start which lulls me into a sense of false security only for something to slow me up on the later stages. Today it was a Pole driving at 10-15 mph below the speed limit from Upavon to the Countess Roundabout (almost 2/3 of the entire journey). I sussed out why – I think he thought the speed limit signs were in kph!
Once at The Devenish I had reduced time so set off at a pace up towards ‘The Down’. I practically ran it with my eyes closed – only to get to the top of the Down and scan around...and not see any Chalk Hill Blues. No matter how hard I looked, stared, willed them to appear I didn’t see a single ghostly blue Chalk Hill. So I worked my way back down the Down and started noticing what was around. Mainly it was the Meadow Browns and surprisingly large numbers of Hedge Browns as well as a stunning Peacock.
15-07-2014 Larkhill and The Devenish
The stop-off today was briefer still and all I really had time for was a quick once over near the car park and enough time for a female Hedge Brown and a Meadow Brown to settle. The Meadow Brown was looking disturbingly worn. If they keep up at this rate there mightn’t be any butterflies left by September!
The move to The Devenish later was again fraught. Today it was the turn of the ‘old biddy’ to slow me down, dawdling along and just when the opportunity to overtake appeared another car would rush towards me snuffing any hopes of getting past. I don’t mind driving slowly but it would have been nice if she’d found an extra couple of mph as then I could have stayed comfortably in fourth gear...
Still I got my rewards in the form of my first Devenish Silver-washed. It was up on the patch of Bramble which is proving to be something of a hotspot. The only drawback is that it reaches back so far that the butterflies are never really ‘close’. Still I didn’t mind as you can clearly see what it is so is good enough for photographic ‘proof’ purposes.
Up on the Down – yep – still no Chalk Hills! So I scurried back down and through the Meadow and there was the Silver-washed to wave me off.
Have a goodun
Wurzel