Blustery Blues.

On Wednesday morning I paid a visit to the grassland slopes at Denbies Hillside. On arrival at 8 am the sun was shining with a cooling southerly breeze and only a handful of butterflies were spotted as I slowly descended Steers Field. Within half an hour the wind strength increased dramatically and the sun was blotted out with total cloud cover so my hopes of finding some perfectly perched Chalkhill Blues was looking grim. 

I traversed the slope for over an hour and eventually found a couple of individuals sitting out the blustery conditions.

My initial efforts using the 70-300 lens were not very successful so as the subjects were less concerned about my presence than staying upright as they swayed in the wind I reverted to using my handy Powershot S95 to get some reasonable close ups.

As the wind strength occasionally eased I started to see a few specimens briefly in flight and then drop onto the ground to wait out the next series of gusts.

 Chalkhill Blue (male).

Chalkhill Blue (female).

Towards the end of my visit I was eventually able to revert back to using the 70-300 lens to produce this final collage of one female and several males.

Friday Flutters.

My butterfly transect walk earlier this week through the woodland glades on Ashtead Common only produced two species; Brimstone and Speckled Wood (see image left) plus views of several Speckled Yellow, a day flying moth patrolling the open tracks; so on Thursday I decided to wander the southern chalk downland slope at Denbies Hillside.

Before tackling the downward slope I wandered across the upper meadow; the track-way lined with buttercups; and spotted numerous Five-spot Burnet moths amongst the grasses.

Five-spot Burnet.

A mating pair.

Descending the slope towards the gate provided my first view this year of a Common Blue perched low down in the grassy sword keeping out of the north-easterly breeze.

A few Brimstone and a solitary Orange-tip were also seen patrolling the field edge.

I was also delighted to see decent numbers of our commonest grassland species, the tiny Small Heath, which from past experience rarely perch for very long but I found one individual that sat just long enough for the lens to focus on it.

Small Heath.

My peripheral vision locked onto another inconspicuous and well camouflaged species, a Green Hairstreak, also hiding deep in the hillside vegetation. 

Green Hairstreak.

Deciding to take a rest and eat my packed lunch close to a bare patch of chalk was a good choice as I was shortly able to enjoy decent views of a fresh male Adonis Blue.

Adonis Blue (male).

On reaching the bottom of the slope I eventually came across a female Adonis Blue (see below).

Adonis Blue (female).

Finally a shot of the hillside resident that is a very important grazing species on the downs, necessary for creating very fine, short turf that is required by the rare Adonis Blue and other downland species.

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Saturday's Critters

Friday Flutters: A Blue and Green Day.

With much higher temperatures today the hour spent on my Ashtead Common transect turned out to be mainly a blue and green affair. The first butterfly recorded was a Holly Blue (above) but the most predominant species was the Brimstone (below) with 12 individuals logged in addition to Small White (1), Speckled Wood (1) and a very flighty single Green Hairstreak.

A few of the ancient oaks are in full leaf but many of the very old pollarded veterans are still waking up. It was very quiet at Flag Pond and in case you wondered that is the muddy colour of the water all year round due to the underlying clay and it plays host to three species of Newt.

A slight detour off my prescribed route provided a few views of two regular woodland species; the Treecreeper (left) and the Nuthatch which was particularly vocal today.Another surprise while watching these 'creepers; was the single hoot call of a Tawny Owl somewhere high on the ridge ... most unusual for the time of day!

Back at home I spent an hour or two doing a few tidy up jobs in the garden while listening and watching three Swifts screaming high overhead plus visits by a Holly Blue and a Small White butterfly.

I am not a fan of non-native species but these 'Spanish' Bluebells do provide a splash of colour at the moment. These invaders will have to be removed when I find the time and replaced with our native stock. Elsewhere a few different varieties of Tulip are hanging on and the herbaceous greenery is bulking up very fast.

Nesting Update:

One final good bit of news today is that we finally have evidence that a pair of Blue Tits are using the nest box in the Birch at the bottom of the garden. 

I will be monitoring their progress and hope to get some better images over the coming weeks. FAB.

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Today's Flowers
Nature Notes 

Friday Flutters and Patch Birds.

During my patch walks this week the most obvious LBJ was the Chiffchaff with several pairs chasing one another while other singletons were either singing or busily searching for insects.

I have also completed my third weekly butterfly transect walk through the oak woodland on the north of Ashtead Common, hence the return of 'Friday Flutters'.

Due to the lower temperatures the variety and number of each species recorded was very low. Just three Brimstone, including this image of a resting female attempting to soak up as much warmth as possible from the limited sunshine.

 

The only nectar sources available have been the early flowering Bluebells and Lesser Celandine but this week the woodland floor was starting to come alive with large patches of Wood Anemone. The only other flutter recorded this week on the transect was the Peacock (below).

A Kestrel patiently surveys its surroundings in one of the large open woodland glades.

I always encounter a few of the very acrobatic Long-tailed Tits during my walks and have watched several still collecting nesting material.

Once again this week the three pairs of Lapwing on the fields at Rushett Farm were very vocal as they endeavoured to chase off any of the Carrion Crows that entered their territorial airspace.

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Nature Notes

Friday Flutters - Weekly Update.

Despite the lack of sunshine over recent days the collage above proves there are still a few colourful butterflies to be found around my local birding patch, providing some photo opportunities, in lieu of the avian species that are all still hiding from my lens.

First up was a single Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) that alighted briefly beneath my feet before moving onto another leaf and then promptly closing its wings!

A few male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) were obvious as they flitted hither and thither before disappearing deep into the grasses to rest briefly before their next territorial foray.

I saw a few Meadow Browns but as expected the Gatekeepers (Pyronia tithonus) were far more numerous but not very active under a cloudy sky. The undersides of both sexes are very similar but this one opened its wings (below) to reveal a female.

A very fresh Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) landed on a old tree stump and provided a different splash of colour.

As I walked over the upper grassy meadow a couple of male Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) were chasing one another and this was one of the few occasions I have managed to get a shot as this tiny flutter that is so well camouflaged when it settles deep amoungst the grasses.

The star find of the week was a resting Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), a migrant species that visits our shores from North Africa. Interestingly I photographed this individual within 50 yards of a single sighting I recorded here during August last year.

With the present unsettled weather pattern it might be a while before I get some more photo opportunities.

Friday Flutters.

With the prospect of a little more sunshine and much reduced winds I decided to carry out my weekly transect recording session on Ashtead Common late this morning but by the time I arrived on site the clouds had already started to drift over and the temperature dropped dramatically.

Since the rides were mowed just over two weeks ago the number of recorded sightings of any Skipper species has dropped dramatically. Today I logged just one, probably a female Small Skipper, hanging on to a swaying stem of dried grass.

The sun made an occasional reappearance enabling me to snap this nectaring Ringlet (above) while overhead a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (below) made a noisy appearance before promptly flying away.

During an hour and a half I recorded 10 species and a total of 44 individual butterflies including Small Skipper (1), Brimstone (5), Large White (4), Small White (1), Holly Blue (1), Red Admiral (1), Speckled Wood (5), Gatekeeper (13), Meadow Brown (7) and Ringlet (6).

One of the most conspicuous species today was the Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) with several sulphur-yellow males feeding on thistles, their favourite nectar source.

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Saturday's Critters

Friday Flutters

My week started on Monday with a wander around the chalk hillside above Juniper Bottom in fairly windy conditions where hundreds of Marble Whites (Melanargia galathea) were flitting hither and thither.

On Tuesday I attended a Butterfly Conservation field trip to Sheepleas; comprising a mosaic of ancient and recent woodland, scrub and open grassland; lying on the chalk slopes of the North Downs. 

A nettle rich field produced good views of many species including Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae). It was interesting to note that many individuals looked a lot smaller than normal.

A sunny glade in the woodland produced our best sightings of Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) with several males perched on umbillifers ...

... followed by a slightly more distant view of a mating pair, with the much darker coloured female above the male.

During this walk I logged 13 species including, after a long wait due to very gusty winds and intermittent showers, a high tree top view of a Purple Emperor.

On Thursday morning I made a brief check of the wildlife around the ponds on my local birding patch at Epsom Common and managed to get my first record shot of a Downy Emerald (Cordulia aenea) perched in the shaded vegetation above the water.

On my way back to the car park to join another Butterfly Conservation walk I recorded my first sighting of a Purple Emperor at this site (see my previous post "A Purple Day"), initially perched with its wings closed on a post before moving onto the ground to seek out some nutrients.

Purple Emperor (Apatura iris).

After everyone spent time enjoying the close views of the Purple Emperor we had a very pleasant two hour stroll around Epsom Common led by Alison Gilry, another transect recorder, enabling me to add Marbled White and Purple Hairstreak to my patch list sightings for this year.

Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus)

Purple Hairstreak

After a lunch break three other butterfly enthusiasts joined me on my weekly transect walk on nearby Ashtead Common. 

Having those extra pairs of eyes and experience certainly helped with identification including an unexpected further sighting of two male Purple Emperor and a Purple Hairstreak (Neozephyrus quercus) both too far away for the lens so I have inserted a shot of the latter species taken last year.

Once again the transect produced sightings of eleven species; Small Skipper (4), Small/Essex Skipper (3), Large Skipper (3), Large White (1), Purple Hairstreak (2), White Admiral (3), Purple Emperor (2), Comma (2), Silver-washed Fritillary (1), Speckled Wood (2), Marbled White (1), Gatekeeper (5), Meadow Brown (41) and the most numerous was Ringlet (53).  FAB.

Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus).

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