Silver Spotted Skipper locations along the A35

[Devon Dave]

I will be travelling home to Devon along the A35 this Sunday on the way home from Lymington to Exeter with friends who are not interested in Butterflies unfortunately. I need a Silver Spotted Skipper (and also a Chalkhill Blue) for my photographic Butterfly collection, two species I have not seen or photographed yet. So I need a site close to the A35 to look for them , which needs to be as close as possible to the A35 so that I don't put my friends out too much in making a small detour on route home, and giving them a short break to stretch their legs. Any location any of you could advise for one or both species would be appreciated with thanks.

[Matsukaze]

Badbury Rings would probably be worth a try, certainly for Chalkhill Blue - not sure that Silver-spotted Skipper even occurs in that part of the world.

[bugboy]

According to the map for the SSS on here, the furthest west its found is Fontmell Down in Dorset.

[sifenn]

I visited Fontmell Down on Monday afternoon (1st) and saw about half a dozen Silver-spotted Skippers. As you head north on B3081, there is a car park on the left before Melbury Abbas. Looks like you'll need to be quick, so more specifically; There is a footpath back along the road southwards that takes you to a small copse at the north end of a huge, natural amphitheatre. There are gorse bushes ahead of you and looking right you will see a fence at the top of the slope and a distinctive lone tree. I've visited several years and found the skippers below the gorse, either side of the fence near the top of the slope and rarely beyond the lone tree.
They love scabious flowers, but it's so dry there are very few about; I found the skippers nectaring on various low and ground thistles.
There are other locations with bigger populations, but this may be your most convenient.
Saw a couple of Clouded Yellows, some tatty Dark Green Fritillaries amongst others while there.
Good luck in your search wherever you end up

[Devon Dave]

Hi Sifenn,
and others who have given advice and special thanks Sifenn for such detailed information, I now have to persuade my friends to give me an hour there to have a try. They want to stop at a place called Symondsbury Estate near Bridport as it has a cafe and toilets. Looking at the landscape it also looks a promising site, especially the slopes of Colmers hill, so will have to try and get them to detour to Fontmell first !
Our clouded yellows are also suffering a bit from nectaring flowers this year with the drought conditions but I did get a nice shot of one with wings open, just slightly blurred . I would be over the moon to add a Silver Spotted Skipper to my collection, got a long tailed Blue on Jersey last week !