Dawneys Hill SU946556
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2018 8:40 pm
With fine weather on the cards and no plans to meet up with Wurzel I decided to a trip to Dawneys heath, Woking, was in order for the day. The night before I’d had my moth trap out and a bumper haul meant by the time I’d done my count, taken the photographs and got my stuff tidied up it was nearly mid-day 
. I also had to persuade my youngest of 14 years to drag herself away from her homework (they get a lot these days?) which added on extra-time to getting out (but not as much as Germany got against Sweden 
). The short drive over took ages too as every traffic light was against 
.
However, it didn’t take long before I saw what I’d come to see, as a Silver-studded Blue flitted amongst the sprouting gorse and stunted heather
. It was a bit tired looking, nice but not the white fringed examples I was hoping to see. As time was short, the numerous Meadow Browns got short-shrift as I focused my attention on finding the perfect Silver-stud.
And then just to add some distraction a Broad-bodied Chaser put in a show and I just had sneak up on it for a photograph or 20 as it settled on a staging post. Straight after was a Keeled Skimmer so I was getting sucked in to hunting for dragonflies. Later on, I came across an Emerald Dragonfly (could’ve been Somatochlora metallica as Dawneys is near the Basingstoke canal) but it didn’t land and I didn’t get a good enough look at it for an ID 
.
The Silver-studs, were in varying condition with some nice very examples but they were proving quite difficult to photograph due to them shutting their wings, not settling for long and being low-down near ground level most of the time (crouching down low is becoming a bit of an effort for me these days 
). However the numbers were very good .. in fact numbering in the hundreds …. but I’m wondering how they’ll fare when the gorse out grows the heather in the coming years (as appears to be happening now after the top-soil was worked over a year or two ago) 
. Eventually I was able to get a nice open-wing male before having to leave so that my daughter could get back to her school books.
The only disappointment was not getting a sighting of a Grayling. All the browns were of the meadow variety, almost as abundant as the Silver-studs . No plastic pigs either 
.
24/06/18. More time this time, moth-trap work sorted by 10:00, at the site by 10:30, just me on my own
.
Immediately inside the site entrance is a stand of bramble and this was populated by some nifty flying large Skippers and lively Meadow Browns. Now that I had more time I decided to give the Meadow browns more attention
.
Unlike yesterday there were Graylings too in fairly good numbers (estimate 40 – 50 for the site). Wonder why I didn’t see them the day before
There were Dragonflies too. This time a Golden-ringed (Cordulogaster boltonii), settled as it chomped on a bee (possibly an Anthophora bimaculata .. lots around). As for the day before dragonflies kept popping up, with an Emperor (Anax imperator) sighted and a Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum).
Quite often when I go looking for Silver-studs I come across a pair in cop. This time not to be but I did see the next best thing to that I suppose, an attempted mating. The following are some blurred action shots of a female having none of it and the male giving up pretty easily.
Time was moving on and I needed to go if I didn’t want to miss the start of the England match …. but hey this is England 
. “I won’t miss anything if I’m a bit late .. so I squeezed a bit more out of the day with some wasps and bees and they were 2-nil up when I did get home 
.
Phil
. I also had to persuade my youngest of 14 years to drag herself away from her homework (they get a lot these days?) which added on extra-time to getting out (but not as much as Germany got against Sweden ). The short drive over took ages too as every traffic light was against .However, it didn’t take long before I saw what I’d come to see, as a Silver-studded Blue flitted amongst the sprouting gorse and stunted heather
. It was a bit tired looking, nice but not the white fringed examples I was hoping to see. As time was short, the numerous Meadow Browns got short-shrift as I focused my attention on finding the perfect Silver-stud. . ). However the numbers were very good .. in fact numbering in the hundreds …. but I’m wondering how they’ll fare when the gorse out grows the heather in the coming years (as appears to be happening now after the top-soil was worked over a year or two ago) . Eventually I was able to get a nice open-wing male before having to leave so that my daughter could get back to her school books. . No plastic pigs either .24/06/18. More time this time, moth-trap work sorted by 10:00, at the site by 10:30, just me on my own
.Immediately inside the site entrance is a stand of bramble and this was populated by some nifty flying large Skippers and lively Meadow Browns. Now that I had more time I decided to give the Meadow browns more attention
.
. “I won’t miss anything if I’m a bit late .. so I squeezed a bit more out of the day with some wasps and bees and they were 2-nil up when I did get home .
- Anyone know what this species is?
) not to mention Clouded yellow (bank on you over me) and Lulworth Skippers 
