Saturday 3rd. August 2013

Taking a chance , I arrived in the bottom glade at High Elms with dark clouds still rolling through , but the chance paid off , as the skies broke and lengthy sunny spells broke up those clouds . Once again , the Canadian Golden Rod was the main search area , and within a few minutes , four White-letter Hairstreaks were found nectaring . With many dog walkers still around , an unexpected person amongst the vegetation caused concern amongst the dogs , which didn't help keeping the WLHs on their nectar plant , often flying off into the trees at the barking of the dogs . Eventually things started to quiet down , and the butterflies began to become more confident . By the time one of the Keiths rang , he had seen my car in the car park , numbers were increasing , but he was beaten to the site by

the other Keith who had come in from the opposite direction . The females still looked in perfect

condition  , but the males have obviously had a bit of pushing and shoving , reflected in then looking less tidy due to losing scales from their wings . As mentioned before the tails of the female are

noticeably longer than those of the male as can be seen from this shot and also the size difference , with the female on the left . The CGR also attracted other insects drawn to it's scent , like this

Longhorn Beetle / Strangalia maculate . Silver-washed Fritillaries were not as numerous in the glade as on my last visit , but those that were there seemed much more laid back and totally unconcerned

about a lens in close proximity . I don't know if it was the intoxication of the nectar or the flavour of his chewing gum , but one of the Keiths managed to get both SWF and Comma to settle on his finger . As the temperature rose , more species came on the wing , including a couple of very freshly

emerged Peacocks , one pictured . Although there was plenty of nectar to go round , it appeared that

some Hemp Agrimony flowers tasted better than others , when the heads were shared , like this SWF

and Comma , and a bit later , a SWF and a female Meadow Brown . By the time I left the glade , WLH numbers had reached 7 , and with the one Keith had found on the Orchid Bank on the way from the car park . things were looking good . On my way back to the car , I re-found the one on the Orchid Bank , and checking the two small glades on the way , finding one female SWF egg laying in

one and two in the other , things are looking good for that species too , with their numbers remaining about 15/20 . A phone call from Keith later in the afternoon letting me know that the WLH numbers had increased to 12/14 before they left the bottom glade was music to my ears . He also found a male Brown Argus on Burnt Gorse , lets hope that will be the first of many as that species had a very poor first brood on site .