Thanks for your comments CJB and Pauline!
Having checked the rather depressing weather reports I decided to give my wife a break and take the kids out for the morning as this might be the last chance for the foreseeable future! Having done Bentley to death and with the problem of the local park at Five Rivers as a distraction we set off for Martin Down. “Who knows...” I thought “...perhaps I might find my first Brown Argus of the year, but I know what I won’t find!” So muttering under my breath about green and streak and hair I unloaded the girls from the car. The car park was packed – it seems we’d arrived at the same time as a mothing party were packing up and a birding party were setting off. As usual I ploughed my own furrow, let the birders go, and then promptly headed off in the opposite direction! Luckily for me that was the route I’d intended.
So along the hedgerow we walked, me in the ruts, the girls on either side on the raised parts of the track. They were great – Dingy and Grizzled Skipper, Small Heath all pointed out and then the blues – Common and Small. Both girls took great delight in how small the Small Blues were. Then we reached the first gated area. A brief look found a pair of Speckled Wood but not a lot else so we continued along the track.
As we set off up the “tunnel” I was hoping for good things as it should have been more sheltered from the wind but it actually seemed like it was acting as a funnel forcing the air along it. With this small problem and what with my younger daughter being such a short arse and the grass/nettles/prickles being so high we had to turn back but not before noting a male Orange-tip patrolling along the hedge and another pair of Speckled Wood. So we set off back to the car and while I was watching a female Orange-tip something small and green caught my eye, almost like a flying emerald. Surely not! But yes it was! Finally! A Green hairstreak.
This one kept close to the ground so I presume it was a female. During the five minutes it deemed to share with me I clicked away, the relief causing a little camera shake but I noticed it’s brown socks –something I’d not seen before. I can't work out why I only saw them here today - I've looked in this area a couple of times over the last couple of weeks with no luck so why now? The only difference is the time of day. Every other time was in the afternoon or early evening wheras today it was first thing in the morning - so a belated thank you to Phil and Rosalyn for pointing that out!
- Battered, scarred (bird attack) and replete of scales - but who cares it's a hairstreak and it's green!
On the way back feeling jubilant (very appropriate for this weekend) we were joined by more butterflies. There were Small Heath, Common and Small Blues in the longer grass so you’d have to lean over to try and get some shots. Along the margins were battered and worn Grizzlies and on the path itself Dingy Skippers. My younger daughter found one of these to be most amusing as it skittered along the path in front of us, settling then moving forward, then settling, then flying forward etc etc. “Why doesn’t he go over there?” she kept enquiring, so in the end we had to walk as close to the edge of the path as we could while she directed us away from the “poor little dingy”!
We were almost back at the car when everything seemed to appear. There were Small and Common Blues, another Dingy on the path and a golden blur that went by. I followed it and then made the approach and it was my first Golden Skipper this year – a Large Skipper!
Another Small Blue almost in my car was too tempting to resist despite the protestations from the girls who by now had drunk their drinks and eaten their bribe sweets.
Once back at the car we packed up and I went to open the door when I noticed something on the wheel – a huge moth. It seems the moth trappers had emptied their trap and this beauty was left behind, an Eyed Hawk Moth.
As I was carrying it over to the hedge because I didn’t think it would be able to hang onto the wheel all the way home I noticed this one as well which I think is a Pale tussock?
With that we loaded up and headed home for lunch – finally a Greenstreak, but still no Brown Argus...and so it begins again...
Still by the time the weather improves I should think there will be plenty more just itching to emerge:lol:
Have a goodun
Wurzel
I haven't heard one for a few years now and the last one I saw was catching moths round a steet light in Kefalonia!
