Thursday 11th. July 2013

Well at least the cloud cover this morning gave me a chance to start processing the mountain of photos taken recently . But then , the sun came out , the computer was switched off , and I was on my way up onto West Wickham Common to see what was about . Like everywhere else , butterflies were in short supply , but waiting by a large area of Bramble to see what turned up , proved successful . Plenty of Bumblebees came to nectar on the recently opened flowers , and I was only thinking that

the Longhorn Beetles / Strangalia maculata  should be showing up soon , when the first specimens flew in , in their strange upright flight position . I tried for ages to get a good flight shot , but failed miserably . Butterflies visiting the flowers included Meadow Browns , Ringlet , at least 6 Large and 2 Small Skippers and a Speckled Wood . One of the Large Skippers , a female , was sunning itself close to one of the beetles , when a male LS landed just behind her on the same leaf . She took off at speed , was lost from view for a while , then returned to the same leaf , closely followed by the male . This happened for a second time with the same ending . The third time , the male made a move towards her and the pair sped off again . This time I watched them fly high over the surrounding Oak trees and out of view . I thought that was it , but then the pair reappeared , and now they were

coupled . I didn't actually see them fly in , but am pretty sure they flew in as such . They remained

that way , moving only slightly , and were still there when I left , oblivious to myself or anything else . On the way back to the car , a fresh Comma flew past and settled , the first I've seen for some

time and it turned out not to be a 'normal' Comma , but the form 'hutchinsoni' , having golden brown undersides . Close by , a hoverfly caught my attention , but I needed to do some digging when I got

home for it's identity , which I believe is Eupeodes luniger .
After lunch , with still wall to wall sunshine , I made another visit to Cuckoo Wood and Burnt Gorse at High Elms . Soon after arriving , I ran into one of the Keiths , who like me was looking for the missing species . We were standing chatting , when the floppy flight of a butterfly caught my eye , right at the back of the clearing . Making our way towards it , we could see it was a White Admiral , but it flew off before a decent shot could be taken . It returned a couple of minutes later , and were

able to get better shots , before it flew off again , not to return this time . We saw a second specimen some time later , but failed to find either Silver-washed Fritillary or White-letter Hairstreak . Just a couple of interesting insects found on the way round ,

another of the Robber Flies / Asilidae sp,

and a member of the Cranefly family , Ctenophora pectinicornis , a species I found and photographed on site last year .