Thanks
Wurzel, I might ruin your poetic wistfulness when I say that lemony tinge on Mrs OT has always reminded me of yellow snow……. Looks like it’s a bank holiday Monday downpour for the both of us!
Thanks
Neil, glad you’ve enjoyed reading them.
Thanks
Dave, what’s not to love about them eh
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
.
Thanks
Otep. Brimstones are very much restricted in distribution by the presence (or absence) of the two species of Buckthorns. Distribution maps of the two Buckthorns and Brimstones are a rather similar.
Thanks
David, there might well be baby Brimstones in my front room in the coming weeks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2021
The
27th saw my first venture into deepest Surrey for the year (there was a slight border dalliance at Hutchinson’s bank on Tuesday), a wander on Denbies Hillside to catch up with some Skippers and Hairstreaks.
To get there I walk along the North Downs Way from Westhumble (about an hour at a leisurely pace) and would normally have stopped to snap a few Whites, Speckled Wood, Holly Blues etc at this time of year, but not today, I saw not a single butterfly. The first butterfly I found ended up being one of the targets, at the foot of Steers field before going through the gate I found a stunt Grizzled Skipper. Well he was either a stunt Grizzlie or a stupid Grizzlie, settling as it did on a spider web. It flew off safely after the pics were taken.
On the other side of the gate I found a Dingy Skipper, the first of many.
A couple of minutes later I wandered over to the usual Green Hairstreak lekking shrubs by the steps and I had all three target species in the bag in my first 10 minutes on the site
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
.
I stayed here for the first hours or so, with all three species showing, plus the arrival of Millerd sporting an impressive lockdown barnet!
After chatting and chasing some Hairstreaks we wandered off to separate areas of the slope, Skippers were the main attraction but the occasional Brimstone would also flutter by. The nippy wind was actually very light and with little in the way of cloud cover the April sun soon warmed the air to the point where Dingies were closing up when settled, so much so I found one closed up completely like a proper butterfly, something you don’t see very often.
An unexpected third season debut species popped up about halfway along, a freshly minted Small Heath (Dave later found a few of his mates).
I caught up with Dave at the other end of the slope where he’d found another Green Hairstreak lekking spot. They were less cooperative with regard of getting pictures but it’s still fun to watch the males spiralling up into the air in a blur of tiny wings, presumably screaming the butterfly equivalent of obscenities at each other. I did manage a lucky upperside shot at the moment of take-off. The normal sombre brown upperside catching the sun to give an almost golden shimmer.
We didn’t realise it there was a Buckthorn in amongst the shrubs until a passing female Brimstone pointed it out to us.
Shortly after this a small bright orange thing flashed in front of us and newby number four for the day was in the bag. Only a brief encounter though.
Dave and I parted ways again as I went on along the path at the bottom of the slope westwards to explore White Downs further along. I’ve wandered along here a few times in the past but never found much, perhaps I’ve not been there at the right times of year. Anyway today I came across a smattering of Skippers of both species, in the heat becoming increasingly difficult to approach, Brimstones and a few Peacock.
I also noted several medium sized Elms in full seed (amongst lots of tall dead skeletons) so perhaps a trip here in mid-June is on the cards this year.
A few birds caught my attention here too, I always hear Yellowhammer singing away along the hedgerows with their “a little bit of bread and no cheese” theme tune. As an aside what cloth eared fool came up with that onomatopoeic version of its call? It’s just a string of identical notes with a final flourish, you could just as easily put “I got run over by a bus and it hurts” to it.... I digress, there were also some Marsh Tits flitting around.
I finished the day with some more Hairstreaks who were still knocking seven bells out of each other in-between soaking up the sun.