Sunday 28th. July 2013

Fresher conditions this morning following overnight rain , but with a very blustery wind , but buoyed up by yesterday's PH finds , I returned to the Commons just after 0800 and spent the next hour and a bit , not seeing a single one , in fact , seeing very little apart from a female Roe Deer that bounded away from the heathland area and disappeared into the woodland without trace . Giving up , I thought that as WLH were out at Spring Park , they should be at High Elms , so that's where I headed . My plan was to head straight to the bottom glade , where the Canadian Golden-rod and Hemp Agrimony were both starting to flower , but the clouds rolled in as I arrived , so I made a detour into some of the

other glades , finding the first Broad-leaved Helleborine of the year in flower in one of them , but not a lot else . By the time I eventually reached the bottom glade , the clouds were beginning to break , but any insects on the wing were at a premium , especially given the strong wind . A Comma was one of the first butterflies to appear , and having lapped the glade several times at speed , settled in the

milky sunshine on a Dogwood leaf . My hopes were raised when from distance , I spotted a small

butterfly on the yellow CG-r , but when I got closer they were dashed by a very small Ringlet . After about an hour , the zig-zag flight of a Hairstreak was seen as it dived into the ground vegetation half way down the glade . When I got to the spot there was no sign , until a gust of wind blew a leaf and I spotted something hanging on the underside . As it attempted to climb onto the top of the leaf , I saw red markings and white streaks , but another gust of wind caught it before I could be sure . I managed to watch it cross the central path and then lost it from view . I carried on scanning the open flowers and a few minutes later saw something near the top of some CGr . Approaching carefully , I could see

that it was my target , a White-letter Hairstreak , at long last . I let it feed , and slowly got closer , firing off shots as I did so , but that wind was definitely not conducive to photography , and most

went straight into the bin , but the odd one or two turned out not too bad . Without the wind , the situation would have been perfect , with the subject at about shoulder height , but with the wind .

After less that 2 minutes and about 20 shots , another gust blew the top of the CGr till it almost reached the ground , and when it came back up , there was no sigh of the WLH , and that was the last I saw of it . I stayed in the glade some time and was joined for a while by a male SWF , but when he had checked out every corner and didn't find a female , he was off . On another stand of CGr , I did

find a Speckled Bush-cricket . With no sign of a return of the WLH , I was ready to move on , when a continuous 'kek-kek-kek' call had me looking into the distance and high above the tree line . I only had the 100mm. macro lens with me , but took a couple of shots of a large and small bird . It wasn't

till I got home and enlarged the pictures that I realised that it had been a Sparrowhawk trying to drive off a Red Kite . I made my way back to the Orchid Bank and on arrival found a group of four butterfly enthusiasts . I stopped for a chat and found that they were at HE for the SWF and WLH and they came from near Dene Park , where I had been earlier in the week for PEs . Whilst chatting , a

Common Buzzard passed over the far end of the Bank , calling as it did so . I directed the group to the bottom glade and we went our separate ways . Even though the sun had gone in , I still had to pass through the other glades on the way back to the car park , finding a female SWF egg laying in

one , and a nectaring female in another glade .

And finally , found in the garden this afternoon , the caterpillar of the Buff Tip Moth .