Not much to report butterfly-wise for me ,at present,when i have been able to get out its just been too hot ! so a few bits of pieces
while i have been out looking at other things ,first a couple of moths ,i watched a moth shoot across the garden and land on my shed latch ,as i approached it pulled its wings in tight ,a mint condition Silver y moth (Autographa Gramma ) ,secondly ,a moth i,ve long wanted to see ,twenty years ago catching (or even seeing !) a Jersey Tiger moth was a non starter ,but now some moth-ers are catching 50+ in a single session ...................I
was really happy to catch the one.
Yesterday i had a trip to the Long Pits at Dungeness (Kent ) for the sixth time of asking ,to try for the rare Lesser Emperor Dragonfly , as i walked along the edge of the pit ,i noted Emperor ,Migrant Hawker ,Common Darters , and a couple of Brown Hawkers ,but no Lesser Emperor ,on reaching
the spot where they are generally drawn too .i noticed a male Emperor ,in hot pursuit of a slightly smaller Dragonfly ,and after a couple of super fast
fly-byes i managed to get it in the Bins ,and sure enough a Lesser Emperor ,its Bright blue central "belt" showing up really well ,i sat and watched him for about three quarters of an hour ,and he came in very close ........for a look !
on the Dungeness butterfly front ,there were a few Common Blues ,Small Heaths ,various Browns ,but best of all 3 fresh 3rd brood Small Coppers.
Today i visited a Wood near Crundale to look for some Broad -Leaved Helleborines (Orchids) ,but my timing was well out ,i found about 20 ,well down
on other years ,and all but one ,had finished...............even that one was pretty scraggy !
Unusually right smack in the middle of this site ,is a tiny (about half the size of a footie pitch ) piece of downland ,i spotted a few Browns ,and two
or three Common Blues and small and Green -veined Whites ,and then a surprise .........3-4 Chalkhill Blues ,i was still looking at the Chalkhills ,
when i got an even bigger surprise ,and found several male Adonis Blues and Brown Argus .
Moving across the road to a different section of the wood ,which i rarely visit ,I stumbled across an even smaller ,section of Downland ,this bit had one or two Chalkhills as well (but no Adonis ) also a Holly Blue ,and incredibly a single Wall ,and a single female Silver -Washed Frit !
On the way home ,i thought i,d have a flying visit to a nearbye site to see how the Adonis were faring ,and happily they seem to be just emerging
with 8 males and one female seen,something else that i did find were several Robberflies of two species ,including Britains largest fly ....the Hornet
Robberfly............i saw 5 of these ,the other ,now i,m not certain here ! (and happy to be corrected !) I think are Downland Robberfly ,reckon i saw aound 10 of these ,including 3 pairs.
Regards Allan.W.