Damp meadow

A short walk down to the damp meadow by the River Bourne demonstrated once again the great diversity of flowers there, with plenty of Hawkweed, Bristly Oxtongue, Fleabane, Ragwort,  Mayweed, Birds-Foot Trefoil, Meadowsweet, Mint, Knotgrass and a small yellow trefoil of some sort, all in full flower. Last year there were plenty of Common Blue butterflies, but I didn't see any today. There was however a minute skipper, possibly an Essex Skipper, although I could not get around to looking at the underside of its antennae tips.

The other Lepidopteran seen - apart from the usual grass plumes - was a Shaded Broad Bar, Scotopteryx chenopodiata (confirmed almost instantly on ispot).

There was also this odd fly, plunging its proboscis deep into the flower throats of this mint head

Not much variety in the hoverflies, but particularly good for Sphaerophoria scripta, 

together with some Episyrphus balteatus

and a couple of Eristalis tenax.

and there was one of the very common (this year at least) Myathropa florea.

On the way down by the side of the footpath beside the large OSR field, I found a nice Syritta pipiens, so recognisable by its size, shape and jizz. you can see the rear tibiae colour pattern slightly more clearly in the second photo.

Hunting for a needle in the haystack

The crops are struggling towards harvest at the moment, with the wheat to the North of East Lock drying off nicely:

The field on the South side of the River had already been harvested, and the straw "rolled", under a violent sky:

On the path on the way down all the hogweed was swarming with Rhagonycha fulva,

but also attracted this Volucella pellucens:

Failed to find ANY sign AT ALL of the Shepherds Needle in the crop margin

White Hill

Wonderful Chalkhill Blue butterflies, and great flowers

Pembury Heath walk

Nice walk up from the water treatment works with plenty of flowers in the damp valley leading up to the conifers and heathland. Greater Birds Foot Trefoil, Lesser Medick, Tufted Vetch, Creeping Thistle, Spear Thistle and Marsh Thistle, Cut-leaved Geranium, Willowherb, Creeping Buttercup, Perforate St Johns Wort, Selfheal, Hogweed, a little Wild Angelica, Yarrow, Nettle, Bramble, Teasel, Agrimony, Pale Persicaria, Sedges and Rushes, Daisy, Cats Ear, Hawkweed, Ragwort, White Clover, Tormentil,

On the heathland I found the trailing St Johns Wort, Hypericum humifusum, as well as heather and the cross-leaved heath. By the cottage the clump of silverwed was still there. In amongst the pines there was little, but in other areas there was sweet chestnut coppice, some rhododendron, and birch absolutely everwhere. 

Southern Hawker and my first glimpse?

Might have seen one Purple Emperor flying high over the Knights Park Corner Oak for about half a second, but couldn't really tell!

Turning to the commoner woodland butterflies, here is a Comma, being very leaf-like indeed.

Here is a Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria, also trying to look like a leaf:

and a rather brighter butterfly, a Gatekeeper,

and a very worn Meadow Brown, probably a male from the uniformity of the hind wing.

This is a male Southern Hawker, posing nicely for its photo, and confirmed on ispot. However it did look to me as though the light coloured patterning on the abdominal sections is all sky blue - which is supposed to be the rarer form.

This is a male Eristalis pertinax with its yellow front and mid tarsi, and a yellow basal section to the rear tibiae. It has also got a very clearly tapered abdomen, and a little bit of shading on the wing, all of which fits.

This one, another male, cannot be pertinax as it has dark front tarsi. However it should not really be arbustorum either, as it has a fairly clear face stripe, and no clearly swollen hind tarsi, although rubbed arbustorum can show dark on the face as well, and the swelling of the hind tarsi can be ambiguous. These two features are well seen in the next picture.

Difficult to get a good ID though, because the pictures aren't good enough. Does look like a small quadrate stigma perhaps, so one possibility is Eristalis interruptus, but this could never be a reliable ID at all.

Myathropa florea was also present in fairly good numbers, certainly better than I remember last year.

Silver Washed Fritillary

Today seemed likely to be sunnier, so it was back to Dene Park hunting the Emperor, but no luck again. However I saw a female Silver Washed Fritillary along the path from Knights Park Corner to Ringlet Corner, and then I think the same individual a little further on.These two photos were of this first one.

On the way back there was another individual by the Triangle. This one looked a little more worn at the edges, with a small nibble out of the left wing. Also I eventually worked out that this was a male, from the sex-brands. I think at least the second sex-brand away from its body has burst open (the white line), as designed for showering a female with scented scales, and thus indicates this insect's prior (hopefully successful) sexual activity. 

There were reasonable numbers of other butterflies around, including this Meadow Brown, probably a very worn female, unusually with two white spots!

By comparison this Gatekeeper looks very orange - if rather blurred in the first photo. This should be a male because of the dark smudge in the centre of the upper forewing:

This could be one of the fresh second brood of Speckled Woods, Pararge aegeria, with fantastic irridescent hairs close to the body.

and this is one of the very nice Ringlets, from the track leading up to Ringlet Corner.

Large Skipper. I would guess that this is a female, and rather worn.

Plenty of other things to see, such as a few Eristalis, including this rather nice Eristalis arbustorum - or is it?  

A dull Meadows South