Sunday 4.5.2014 Stephens Castle Down
I was hoping that this would be third time lucky. The third visit I have made to this site in as many weeks. I was hoping for confirmation that the singletons of Duke of Burgundy and Green Hairstreak that I saw here last year were not just wanderers that happened to drift in from elsewhere. After the rain of the previous week I was grateful of some sunshine albeit accompanied by some cloud and a little breeze. My arrival was greeted by the welcome site of a male Orange Tip purposefully flying down the lane
A Peacock, disturbed from the nettles, settled down to bask on the path as I made my way up to the best butterfly area on the site. After only a few minutes and a couple of Dingy Skippers I spotted my first Duke of Burgundy of the year
This brought a huge amount of satisfaction and a big smile to my face
Almost immediately that I saw the first there seemed to be a couple more
- Duke of Burgundy
- Dingy Skipper
I am no expert but think they were all males ranging from fresh to perhaps a week old. It will be interesting to see how numbers increase over the next week or so, I will try check the site regularly. There is a sheltered hollow right in the middle of this site and this is exactly where I found the Dukes. They were, of course, accompanied by Dingy Skippers. Once I had spent some time observing the Dukes I wandered off to some of the other areas soon spotting a few Grizzled Skippers. By now it had started to warm up and all of a sudden there seemed to be lots of Brimstone in the air.
- Grizzled Skipper underside
- Male Brimstone
- Grizzled Skipper
I now set off after my second target. My memorable encounter with Green Hairstreak last year at another site taught me that they like Hawthorn and Elder shrubs particularly and they often sit at head height. I spent an age checking the area where I saw one here in early June last year without success.
- The large expanse of Garlic Mustard where I found plenty of Orange Tips as well as Green Hairstreaks
- Green Hairstreak
I decided to check out a part of the site that I have not explored yet. I made my way up to the top of the hill where the Monarchs Way passes the site. On the way finding the grisly sight of a decomposing Deer carcass in the long grass
Here I could see quite a number of Orange Tips along the track together with a bit of Garlic Mustard growing along the track. I needed to go outside of the reserve to get to the track. Once along the track I could see the top corner of this site was actually awash with Garlic Mustard but the sun and the Orange Tips had disappeared at that point. This area was freshly cleared when I visited last year and was now showing the benefits. As I walked along the track (outside of the reserve) a small dark butterfly fluttered across my path and flew toward a stand of young ash Saplings (inside the reserve) and settled just to far away to see clearly. Could this be my Green Hairstreak
I made my way quickly back toward the gate into the reserve. At this point the sun reappeared . As I turned and looked behind me the Orange Tips, which had disappeared from view suddenly came to life
I backtracked to the area of Garlic Mustard at which point another similar small dark butterfly fluttered across and settled on the edge of a Garlic Mustard leaf. Unfortunately it settled at such an angle I could still not confirm it as my Green Hairstreak
I returned into the reserve and although there is no path in this area I made my way to the large swathe of Garlic Mustard. A Holly Blue flew past (a species I have not encountered here before) Plenty of Orange Tips including good numbers of females a couple of which I saw being pestered by an amorous Green Veined White. Then yet another small dark butterfly (the same as the others)fluttered around me and settled on a Garlic Mustard flower right in front of me. At last my Green Hairstreak had arrived
- Green Hairstreak
- Green Hairstreak
Having confirmed this one then the other two I had seen were most certainly the same species. It gave me plenty of photo opportunity, unlike the Orange Tips
I do not have a huge amount of experience with this species but maybe higher temps in the middle of the day are necessary to get this species into action. A little further on I found another one 'on Hawthorn at head height' as expected. My day was now complete but to be honest I did not want to leave and could have stayed there all day. I had one last look around and spotted one rather worn Small Tortoiseshell at which point it had become distinctly cooler and cloudier. On returning to the 'Duke area' there strangely did not seem to be any around at all now
My total species for the year is now 12. I now can not wait till next week and perhaps find some Common Blues. My species tally for this site is now up to 25 with some notable exceptions. I have yet to see Comma or Small Copper at this site and I feel it could easily yield a few more yet.
Total Count for the day:
Orange Tip 14 (6 female & 8 male)
Peacock 7
Dingy Skipper 10
Duke of Burgundy 4
Grizzled Skipper 7
Brimstone 20 (9 female & 11 male)
Small Tortoiseshell 1
Green Veined White 1
Green Hairstreak 4
Holly Blue 2