Coney Banks and Small Blues

The target species today was the Small Blue - surely I would finally find this butterfly which has eluded me for so long?

Yes! In exactly the expected places along the base of the slope there were at least seven individuals spotted, probably most, if not all, males, as this is where they are supposed to gather, for example basking on grass stems, waiting for the innocent (?) females to arrive, mate and then depart to explore clumps of kidney vetch, their only known food plant in the UK.

This is one of the males, that posed, first with its wings closed, then gradually opened.

Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea Lathyrus latifolius was present on much of the slope, but I missed the unusual Yellow Vetchling, Lathyrus aphaca.

Great Northern Diver in Chatham Docks

Easily spotted in the end, this bird showed a number of confirmatory characteristics.

There was a dark half collar at the base of the neck although this was variably obvious according to the bird's activity and its angle to the viewer. The flattened head, almost concave is visible here. The bill was held horizontal and was ivory-coloured except a narrow dark triangle along the top ridge of the upper section, referred to as the culmen.

Note the lack of a clear white flash on the flank, as would be expected in a juvenile Black-throated Diver.

In the next photograph, you can see the half collar again.

In the next photograph the markings on the back are nice and clear, possibly indicating the white fringed feathers of a juvenile bird. 

The bird was quite active and had regular periods of "splashing about" sometimes apparently with the legs, but with the wings also more or less ruffled. Incidentally, here the head outline looks quite concave.

At other times it is clearly the wings themselves being used to disturb the water surface.

After one of these episodes, the diver dropped its head below the surface, perhaps snorkelling, and then did an upright "flapping" display. Divers and Cormorants do this, Grebes never do:

Here is the same bird doing the same again!

The wing tips often "stuck up" in this bird.