millerd

[millerd]

Thanks, Wurzel and Goldie - as you'll see soon, Goldie, I have just been visiting some of your haunts in Kent.

I have been down in Fokestone/Dover for a couple of days, so have some catching up to do. Most annoying was that my trip down on Saturday was the "long way round" via the south coast from Brighton onwards and I drove past the spot where the Q of S were found near Newhaven at near enough the same time! Completely unaware, I had no idea I could have made the same detour on the way back. The Law of Sod prevailed...

Firstly, a few things from a couple of local walks on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th August: Numbers of most things are in decline markedly now. The exception seems to be Small Heaths, which are really numerous at the moment.

On the Friday, I tracked down my local Clouded Yellow again, but failed to get a decent shot of any sort, just a few of it whizzing past on one of its many sorties up and down the path.

Dave

[millerd]

Saturday 26th August: I was headed to Kent for a couple of days, so I decided to make a day of the journey and stop off on the way. I went down to the coast and made my first stop at Newhaven Tide Mills, blissfully unaware of the excitement just up the road. In the hour I spent there, I saw very little except for lots of Small Heaths and Whites, plus a few ageing Common Blues. Not a Clouded Yellow (or indeed anything exciting) was to be seen. I moved on a bit further and stopped up at High & Over, where the story was the same. All rather dull so far.

I needed another en route stop, and toyed with the idea of Birling Gap (twenty-four hours before a different kind of excitement), but in the end pressed on as another idea formed: Dungeness was just a very short detour off the route I was taking. Nearly there, I realised I had no idea where I should be going to see the fabled Small Coppers - the area is huge, with lots of potential places to stop. In the end I made for the car park by the lighthouse and the RH&DR station, and hoped for the best.

Once again, there were a lot of Small Heaths around...

...and in fact the first butterfly I saw was a Brown Argus, but suddenly my eye was in and Small Coppers appeared. I found I could follow any path or direction and before very long one or two would pop up. They were very active and hard to follow in the sunshine, and there was quite a bit of interactive behaviour.

trying very hard indeed...

I saw none of the quirks and aberrations that turn up here, but there was a lot of variety and it was well worth the detour.

I didn't spot the second one hiding until reviewing the photos later

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great range of Coppers Dave, and there was you wondering if you'd see on this season earlier in the year Good going with the Cloudy, still not one for me...Sorry to hear about the QoS

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Looking forward to seeing the shots you took in Kent Dave, I bet you could kick yourself for missing the QSF, the Small Copper shots are lovely Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

... Most annoying was that my trip down on Saturday was the "long way round" via the south coast from Brighton onwards and I drove past the spot where the Q of S were found near Newhaven at near enough the same time! Completely unaware, I had no idea I could have made the same detour on the way back. The Law of Sod prevailed...
Dave

Ouch!...reminds me of the time a few years ago when I had just got back from a holiday near Weymouth only to discover that a Monarch had been posing for people on Portland that very day.

Great Coppers, I have not been down to Kent for years, I must pay a visit sometime.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Katrina]

Oh yes reminds me of the time I went away on holiday to Mull and found people were photographing a Scarce Tortoiseshell for several days somewhere I used to walk round once a week when at home!

[David M]

Keep trying with those Clouded Yellows, Dave.

Eventually you'll find one settled!

[millerd]

Thank you everyone - it seems we all have stories of the ones that got away when we didn't even know they were there! The Coppers were worth seeing at what must be their hottest of UK hotspots. If they are as widespread over the whole peninsula as they were in this one small area, goodness knows how many there must be altogether...

Sunday 27th August: Another hot and sunny day, with not a breath of wind, even down on the cliff edge overlooking the Channel. In the morning I went up onto the downs between Temple Ewell and Lydden and it was interesting to compare what was around with what I regularly see up on the North Downs in Surrey (it is essentially the same chalk ridge). On the way up to the hill from the car, I saw several Holly Blues, a few Speckled Woods and a nice new Comma. Once onto the hill proper, there were very few Chalkhill Blues still flying, though there may well have been more females than I realised.

However, there were good numbers of Adonis of both sexes, including several pairings.

There were also a scattering of Common Blues, and a few Brown Argus.

Silver-spotted Skippers were darting around in all directions, though many were looking a bit worn.

However, some of the females, down in the grass looking to lay, were in better condition.

I was lucky enough to find a perfectly posed mating pair: I had followed them in the air and the courtship was very brief - they must have coupled almost as soon as they had landed.

Meadow Browns were everywhere, though outnumbered by the ubiquitous Small Heath - a definite contender for the commonest butterfly here today. Finally, there were numerous white butterflies, mostly Small and Large, and last of all a single Clouded Yellow. Given the constant strong sunshine, there was no way it was going to stop for more than a second - and so it proved. I spoke to a couple of other enthusiasts today, including a chap from Essex who was very pleased to see the Clouded Yellow, and a lady who seemed to have a good deal of local knowledge and was very helpful.

Dave

[millerd]

Sunday 27th August: part two - the afternoon. After a break for lunch I spent the afternoon walking the clifftop path from St. Margaret's to Kingsdown and back, taking in the area called Kingsdown Leas (famous in 2013 for its crop of Long-tailed Blues). The first part of the walk was strangely butterfly-free, and it was a while before I came across the first one - a Small Copper initially down on the path, but which then flew up to perch.

From then on, White butterflies predominated - mostly Large Whites, and it appeared that they and a few Small Whites were flying in off the sea. Certainly they were nectaring avidly, including a nice female - not something I would get near at home.

At the Kingsdown end, more was in evidence. The everlasting pea is perhaps not as widespread as it was a few years back, but it was still attracting blue butterflies - though not the ones I had hoped by some outside chance to see! Chalkhill, Common and Adonis were all around in small numbers. There was a particularly fresh-looking Chalkhill female...

...and some lovely male Adonis.

Dave

[Butterflysaurus rex]

There was a particularly fresh-looking Chalkhill female...

Wow Chalkhill's are all but finished around here Dave. There are a few very geriatric ones still flying but I've not seen any as fresh as that!

[David M]

Large Whites are suddenly doing very well near me too, Dave. Maybe there has been an influx of migrants?

Sadly, Chalkhills and Adonis are not part of the Welsh butterfly 'fabric', but it's nice to see fresh examples of these beautiful butterflies from elsewhere!

[Wurzel]

That is a classically posed 'in cop' shot Dave The larger(female?) has really nice spots, spikey looking Lush Adonis as well

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[trevor]

Your camera was kept busy in Kent, Dave.
Great shots of Adonis, and especially the Small Coppers.
The areas you visited were surprisingly busy, given that we are now at the end of August.

All the best,
Trevor.

PS. How's retirement ?.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Dave , you've got some great shots of the Adonis It looks like I'm coming to Kent at the wrong time of year
I've been down there in July and early August before but never at the end of August, I must try different tactics, perhaps a Late August visit. Goldie

[millerd]

Thanks again, everyone. It's great to see fresh-looking butterflies late in the year, and particularly when they are Adonis Blues. I think the Chalkhill female was a bit of an oddity, though I do often see females well into September at Denbies (when most of the males of all species have disappeared). I think it's hard to time it right for a visit, Goldie, as every year is different. About a fortnight ago would have been really good this year as all the Blues would have been out together as well as the Silver-spots...

Monday 28th August: Another scorcher of a day, and time for my return home. My first stop was another place Goldie has mentioned - the area of reclaimed land created 20 years ago out of chalk marl spoil from the Channel Tunnel diggings, which lies at the foot of the cliffs between Dover and Folkestone. This has been christened Samphire Hoe: Samphire being one of the common plants found along this coast, and Hoe being a word for a bit of land sticking out into the sea. It is accessed by a steep and narrow (one-way traffic) tunnel from the A20, which I believe dates back to earlier abortive attempts to burrow across to France. Typical chalk downland plants are everywhere, some deliberately introduced (wild flower seeds from Folkestone Warren) and some colonising naturally. Unsurprisingly, over the years the butterflies have moved in. However, today being at the tag end of the season, the variety was not great: Common Blues, Small Heaths and Meadow Browns predominated, with a sprinkling of Large and Small Whites. The highlights though were several Clouded Yellows - at least three separate butterflies, but quite possibly more.

This one has just flown backwards off the flower...

(My thanks to the visitor centre for all the obscure facts about this spot, which simply didn't exist when I lived in Dover many years ago!).

Dave

[bugboy]

Looks like you had a good time down Kent way . I'm glad you didn't miss out on the Queens though and look forward to seeing what you saw down in Piddinghoe

[millerd]

28th August (part two): Still in blissful ignorance of the QoS in Sussex, my detour on the way home was to Denbies, a place I find it hard to pass by. However, it was only a brief call, but long enough to see that the Adonis were still going strong and there were a good few Silver-spotted Skippers and the odd Brown Argus still flying.

one pair...

...another pair close to the path

28th August (part three): All was not quite over, as I reached home early enough to have a quick wander around my local patch. At this late time of day, I didn't see much, but there were still a few GVW pottering about, nectaring and looking for spots to roost. I hardly saw any of this species in Kent, but here at home the story is different.

The other point of interest was to find a basking Comma - a very late and worn hutchinsoni individual. I thought they had definitely all gone now, but apparently not.

Dave

[millerd]

With hardly a moment to draw breath, I was off on my travels again on 29th August, this time to Cardiff so I could take my youngest son to the Dr. Who Experience before it closes in a few weeks time. It was a long-standing promise, and rare migrant butterflies in Sussex were never going to compete. The good thing was that the dreadful weather on Wednesday 30th in the southeast had cleared Cardiff by 11 o'clock, and it was a lovely afternoon there: Cardiff Bay is very pleasant indeed, but appears to only have white butterflies.

Thursday 31st August started well, but I had the car to MOT (successfully!) first thing and there was even a heavy shower by the time I was ready to go out anywhere. However, the sun came out again mid-afternoon, so I set off round my local patch. Out in the big meadow area between the M25 and the River Colne, I came across a couple of chaps energetically sweeping the grass and flowers with large nets. It turned out that they were surveying the area for insects, gathering and identifying whatever flying creatures there were to be found. I mentioned that the whole area was threatened by Heathrow expansion, and they reckoned that what they were doing was related to the assessment of the potential environmental impact of this (in my view) unnecessary project. I mentioned that I regularly see 24 species of butterfly here, which they found interesting, and to prove the point, a Clouded Yellow breezed past.

One of the chaps was very pleased with that as he hadn't seen one for many years. In fact, there were at least two Clouded Yellows, as they encountered each other a number of times, and I finally caught up with one for long enough to get some photos.

Also around were Common Blues, Small Heaths and Meadow Browns, plus a variety of White butterflies of all three species.

There was a single Peacock (they have largely disappeared into hibernation around here now).

Back nearer home, the hedgerows had a good selection of Speckled Woods, and a wild buddleia had attracted a several Red Admirals.

The biggest surprise, however, was spotting a shiny orange spot against the bright yellow of a dandelion - a Small Copper a long way from their usual haunts. Another colony must be around somewhere...

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great shots of the Cloudy Dave, it's great when butterflies just turn up on cue

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Yes, Wurzel, and I was pleased to actually get close to the little perisher, having watched it charge up and down almost daily for the last week or so! I was also pleased it had been joined by another - interesting that they should turn up here, as they do almost every year, when I haven't seen any at such butterfly hotspots as Denbies and Aston Rowant this year. I'm not complaining!

Dave