Wednesday 13th. June 2012

Well , after much messing about with parts , the garage rang mid morning to say that the car was ready for collection . After being revived following the presentation of the bill , and collecting my gear from home , I headed for Hutchinson's Bank , with the blue skies rapidly turning cloudy . By this time of year , the place should be alive with butterflies , especially Small Blues after good numbers

being found last year , but during the visit , I found about 10 specimens of this the smallest of all

British butterflies . The top one is a very fresh male and the lower a female , being almost brown on the topwing , but I'm still waiting for a paired shot . Other species seen were almost all in ones , like

this Dingy Skipper , living up to it's name , Grizzled Skipper , Common Blue (6) , Brown Argus ,

Small Heath (5) , Brimstone -female pictured , Large and Small White and Speckled Wood (2) was as good as it got . Still not large amounts of nectar about , the Kidney Vetch , foodplant of the Small

Blue is all in flower now , along with Greater Yellow Rattle , as it's name suggests , larger than it's

relative , and for which the site is well known . A couple of chalk grassland specialists , in the form

of Wild Mignonette / Reseda lutea and Bladder Campion / Silene vugaris , were also found . Along

the bridleway , the large caterpillar of the Drinker Moth ( Not ! - many thanks to Spock for the correct ID - an Oak Eggar moth caterpillar , Cheers ) posed next to a 35mm film canister . During the visit , I met up with Martin , who does a weekly transect on the site , and has done for many years . It was good to chat about the site , whilst waiting for the sun to reappear . As I got back to the car , there was some crashing about in the woodland , and two Roe Deer appeared on the verge . One

dived straight back into the woods , but the other stopped to have a look at me , before he took off

along the woodland edge . And the car ? It performed perfectly , hopefully it won't play up again , or give me any more heart attacks .