Denge Wood

5 male Common Blues, 2 Duke of Burgundies, and 1 Dingy Skipper.

Very nice to see the Dingy Skipper, Erynnis tages, a species I only occasionally see! The caterpillar food plant is the Common Birds-Foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, present in reasonable numbers on this site. Horseshoe Vetch and Greater Birds-Foot Trefoil are alternatives.

This is a better photo of the butterfly's stubby head, with its prominent eyes and protruding palps.

This photo shows the long hairs around the abdomen which I think must originate at least partly on the top of the hind wings - function probably complex!

I have seen this butterfly before in May, but the flight period of the adult extends rather later in the year than I expected, continuing in June, so I still need to keep my eyes open. I have seen this species before at this site, in 2015 and it was also found for me at Fackenden Down in 2016 - good photo from the last site, a fresher specimen than this one!

The national distribution map seems to indicate that larger numbers seem to found in the Eastern part of the North Downs, but this may be due to site size rather than site suitability. The butterfly likes basking on bare ground and the broken cover may also encourage the food plant, the Birds-Foot Trefoil. However the butterfly also likes taller plants for shelter and perching. Some of the colonies are quite small and discrete, and exploitation of new areas is likely to be slow. Large sites or meta-populations of small sites are the most likely to persist.

Females tend to lay eggs on the tops of leaves on the longest shoots of large food-plants in sheltered warm situations, perhaps on south-facing slopes, or in wind-protected hollows. The larvae spin leaves together to form a succession of little tents in which they feed throughout the summer and then into the winter (a hibernaculum), and they pupate in the spring in one last nest as well.

The butterfly is declining nationally, by about 40%. Sites tend to get overgrown and brownfield sites may get developed, so continued renewal of sites is sensible. 

Blues at the Lawrence Betts Reservoir

Three male Common Blues, Polyommatus icarus, seen this evening, downslope, and partly out of the wind, on the reservoir's walls.

Access Trail and a couple of old stagers

Along the Access Trail to check for Butterflies - and the "old stagers" of two Peacocks and One Comma popped up along the herbicide strip alongside the Access Trail to reassure me that there are usually at least some butterflies there, these species having bravely over-wintered, and lasted until now!

The Comma was resting on the leaves of the Elms beyond the dip, looking quite tatty:

The second of the two Peacocks posed on one of the fence posts. The broad body seems to sit in a little "valley" of the cupped inner wing. The thorax hairs have been worn entirely off.

There were also a coupled of male Banded Demoiselle's seen.

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.

Rye Harbour with Phil

A lovely sunny day down at Rye today. How nice to see Phil.

Met the impressive Nick, doing visitor liaison at the portakabins.

Too windy at Lullingstone

White Hill Reserve and Fackenden Down

Too cold and breezy for butterflies today, but some nice flowers!

It has been a particularly good year for Cowslips at White Hill - because of the dry conditions or the earlier mild winter perhaps?