27th July, Summer Walls
I’ve not taken my little Padawan butterflyer work colleague out for a few months. Last time it was May so there’s lots of new species to introduce her to now. She’s still holding a grudge at Holly Blues and their frustrating habits so I decided to introduce her to Wall photography…. does that make me a bad person
It looked like the south coast might avoid the worst of the showers predicted so it was an early stsrt for a day at the seaside. It was rather cloudy when we arrived at Eastbourne and there was a rather stiff breeze whistling along the coast but out of the wind it was pleasantly mild, mild enough for some activity in fact. Surprisingly one of the first butterflies to appear were a few Walls in an area I’ve not seen them before. A bank beside one of the paths at the start of the South Downs Way had been cleared of scrub and bobbing along were half a dozen or so males and, in the cloudy conditions, we both managed a few passable shots, I really wasn’t expecting it to be this easy!
Moving on my keen eye’s spotted a few more lifers for Padawan, Common and Chalkhill Blues, both desperately clinging on for dear life along the edge of a windswept path.
We found a few more blues dotted here and there along with the occasional Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper attempting flight, which kept Padawan occupied as well. Both Browns she’s seen at work but until now no idea what they were.
As we headed up to Wall Brown Alley the clouds began to clear and Blues started to appear more often, a foreshadowing to how the day was going to turn out.
Walls were, as expected, active on the Alley but I got very excited when I spied my first female of 2017 (I only saw males in the spring), she was flying very sluggishly and when she landed it was clear to see why, her consort was hanging limply behind her. This is the first time I’ve seen mating Walls so that’s another tick for me and made the day worthwhile on its own. They didn’t sit particularly well for us and I was having to hold the camera at arm’s length and hope auto focus knew what it was looking at, but in the circumstances, I’m happy with what I got. Along the Alley, which is well sheltered from the wind, things were livening up nicely, Blues, Browns and the occasional White were all active and keeping little Padawan happily occupied.
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Gone noon, it was getting really rather warm, meaning most things were too active and since we’d decided on a fish ‘n’ chips lunch, as you do at the seaside, we wandered back to the seafront. The walk back was littered with Blues and we witnessed the brief courtship and resulting pairing of some Commons. By the time we got back to the road I’d surmised Common Blues were going to be the commonest butterfly of the day, that doesn’t happen very often these days!
With belly’s full we returned and quickly found another lifer for Padawan, a Painted lady on the same bank as the first Walls were seen.
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- Where's the butterfly?
We headed back to a spot where I suspected the Blues would be congregating. A patch that’s slightly more sheltered than surrounding areas that’s always yielded results on previous visits, disturbing a male Clouded Yellow along the way who got caught in the wind and practically vanished before our eyes.
The spot came up trumps for Blues with dozens feeding up, settling down and catching the last rays of the sun as it began to cloud over again. Mixed in with the Commons and Chalkhills were a few Brown Argus meaning I was able to point them out and explain to Padawan that these are one of the Blues but they aren’t blue. Another lifer for her came in the form of several Small Copper.
Back on the Alley, although it was now mostly cloudy the path was still warm enough to attract the odd Wall down to soak up the dying heat, again allowing us reasonable shots. We also found a freshly emerged male Meadow Brown. He was definitely still wearing his ‘L’ plates when he fluttered off and to finish, another Painted Lady who’d decided the edge of the path was the perfect place to spend the night!
A very successful day with not a drop of rain and yes, Common Blues did outnumber all other species, and my Padawan came away with a good handful of lifers… and pictures of Walls at the first attempt!