8/6/16 one site too many
Today was another attempt at getting a few more of the commoner species on my yearly tally so I went off to Surrey. My first stop was Bookham. It was quite cloudy but in the occasional sunny interval Speckled Woods were active.
The Blackthorn sucker my Brown Hairstreaks spent the winter on is now swamped in grass but I did find the Winter-cress which was laden in Orange-tip eggs on my last visit, today it was laden in Orange-tip caterpillars, 6 easily found
On my way to White Admiral Towers I found a nice Hoverfly
- Leucozona lucorum
But my quest to find a post hibernation WA cat still draws a blank. I’m sure they are there laughing at me, there was still lots of freshly nibbled leaves but I couldn’t find a single culprit, Admiral or otherwise.
To prove that my eye’s do work though, on my way back I saw this little fella, approx. 2mm in length, perched on top of some Nettle flowers.
- Micropterix aruncella
Next stop was Box Hill, only my second visit this year. Common Blues were living up to their name, being rather common (and being all males, rather blue). Sadly they weren’t stopping for man nor beast, the sun had come out and it had gone from very pleasant to very sweaty in a matter of seconds. I was taking a few orchid snaps to pass the time when a target species flopped by. It’s not often I see my first Meadow Brown before my first Large Skipper.
Small Heaths were as uncooperative as the blues and the one snap I did get was about to be binned when I noticed it was an ab. a partial double eyespot, shame I didn’t notice earlier or I would have been a bit more persistent!
A holly Blue and a few more Speckled Woods later and I come down to Zigzag Road where the Silver-spotted Skippers hang out. I was hoping to find some Small Blues here since I’ve only seen 3 or 4 so far this year but the first thing to catch my eye was a tiny golden orange missile. My first Large Skipper gave me the run-around and I only managed a handful of record shots.
Next I found myself the centre of attention and made myself a new BFF. The mud from Bookham seemed especially tasty
As did my sweat
And even my camera, I just couldn’t get rid of him and he even sat on my hand when I went off after another Large Skipper. I finally left him in the sun
And found myself a remarkable well behaved Small Heath
Some slightly less active Common Blues (he didn't get anywhere)
An aged Brown Argus
And Twyblades being pollinated.
Final stop of the day was Denbies and I was glad of the shade as I walked along the North Downs Way. I was also pleased to see Speckled woods in numbers, I’ve missed seeing sparring males swirling up into the canopy
A few more Meadow Browns were learning how to fly in the sun
And then I arrived at Denbies at almost exactly the same time as a huge thunder cloud. The sun disappeared, rumbles were heard, I weighed up the possibilities of it passing against the risk of me wandering across a hillside with a metallic thing draped around my neck, I put on my rain coat and arrived at Box Hill train station an hour later somewhat wet, oh well
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