Cheers, Ernie - very good! The chances are, though, you were probably right...
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Earlier on, one persistently settled on my back and there was no way I could twist myself to record the event. What a great species they are - I love the way they bound around the place, especially when the sun shines.
It certainly got hot round here, Neil, topping 33 degrees for the next three days running. However, I managed not to be here...
Cheers, Wurzel - Graylings are certainly entertaining, whatever genre they fit into...
On
Sunday 25th August, I decided somewhere coastal would be cooler, with refreshing sea breezes to make things more bearable. With reports of Long-tailed Blues coming in thick and fast, I thought I would head for somewhere slightly different, where in fact it all kicked off back in 2013. I therefore drove down to the southeast corner of Kent, parking by the memorial at St Margarets and walking along the clifftop path along to Kingsdown Leas.
So much for sea breezes - the temperature was even up to 31 degrees at the top of the cliff, the Channel was millpond calm, and a brown haze could be seen just above the horizon drifting gently over from the continent looming indistinctly 35 km away. About halfway along the path, I came across the first clumps of Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea (BLEP). Much of this had gone over, and some (along with other vegetation along the edge) appeared singed by salt water. There had of course been a very windy spell only a couple of weeks before, and a lot of salt spray would have blown up here.
Nevertheless, some of the BLEP was in flower, and required a closer look. Before very long, I found the first LTB egg.
Close by were a group of local butterfly enthusiasts who reported seeing adult butterflies (including a mating pair) the previous day. They did take an interest in the egg I'd found though, and nearby I found another one.
I left them hanging hopefully around the same spot, and carried on, checking out further clumps of BLEP. There were several false alarms - other blue butterflies were flying, and took an interest in the peas from a nectar point of view. There were Adonis...
...and a pair of Common Blues that appeared to be sheltering from the heat.
After finding a third egg along the way...
...I came to the last big patch of BLEP. Here finally, I found a Long-tailed Blue. In fact there appeared to be two of them tussling with each other. I took a couple of distant shots to be sure, and couldn't believe my eyes when examining the photos - the butterfly I had photographed sitting on a bramble was actually a Purple Hairstreak!
Left wondering what a Purple Hairstreak was doing right on the coast, with no obvious oak trees in sight, and flying so late in August, I did however have the other butterfly to consider. This time the shots confirmed that it was what I'd been looking for. And there
were two of them as well. This time I watched the pair perform the spiralling soaring flight I have seen described by Neil H., disappearing almost out of sight into the blue sky above. They were very active in the hot sun, but regularly performed a circuit around the patch of BLEP and bramble, and occasionally would settle on one group of flowers not too far from the edge. Eventually, after one or two incidents of swearing at hidden bramble runners, I managed a few shots - my first ever of this species.
Like everyone else, I am now looking forward to the next brood. The weather has been reasonable, and the forecast for the next ten days at least is very good - if anything the worry might be that the lack of rain down here in the South might dry up all the BLEP before the LTB larvae have eaten what they need! Fingers firmly crossed.
Dave