Thursday 29th. August 2013

A catch up on new interest found over the past week . On Sunday last , a visit to Hutchinsons Bank found two Clouded Yellows still patrolling the Cutting , but also a larvae of the Elephant Hawk

Moth , feeding on it's foodplant , Rosebay Willow Herb . Not the easiest of things to photograph on

the plant , so I temporarily moved it onto the bench to get a better view . As can be seen in the pictures , the 'Elephant' part of the moth's name comes from the larvae , with it's trunk-like front end , not the moth itself , which is pinkish in colour , and far from elephant-like .
On Tuesday , Martin and myself went off in search of the last butterfly of the season ,the Brown Hairstreak , which we failed to photograph at Bookham Common recently . Deepest Sussex , the Rifle Range at Steyning , our best chance of seeing this species . Things looked good early on , with specimens seen high in the Ash and Field Maple trees behind the Blackthorn / Bullace 'mini forest' in front , exactly what the females wanted for egg laying . But for some reason , the females did not

come down to do their duty , even Neil Hulme couldn't encourage them down low . I did get a couple

of record shots from about 5 mtrs. , but they don't really do justice to the species . We did also find

Adonis Blue and Clouded Yellow further up the hill , along with several Wall , under and topwing

pictured , including two females that were egg laying deep in grass tussocks , well out of view . I see from reports that the females 'played ball' yesterday , and everyone got the shots they wanted , that's life . A quick visit before lunch yesterday surprisingly found another EHM larvae on the same stand

of Rosebay Willowherb as the first one . This one showed up better as it was resting when found , and it's 'head pulled in' and scare off anyone looking pose . This one was half as big again as the first

one , quite a handful . Once again two CYs were found in the Cutting . After lunch , I spent a leisurely hour or so up on the Common , mainly spent re-checking the marked Buckthorn shrubs . I was just about to give up , when lo and behold , I found my first ever Brimstone pupa case , albeit the

butterfly had already emerged . I have spent hours looking for one of these and at last I found one . Also found on the heathland area was a new hoverfly for me , Sphaerophoria bavata , one of the

smaller , very active specimens . Today , a spur of the moment decision saw me heading for Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey , in search of a Wryneck that has been seen over the last couple of days , a species I have never seen . When I arrived at the bush that it had been favouring , a Magpie was sat on the top and no sign of the Wryneck . I met up with a couple from Dartford who had arrived at first light , and they didn't find it either . A look at Capel Fleet and the Raptor viewpoint , produced little , not surprising with all the farm work going on , and the track to the car park and back at Elmley only produced 1 Wheatear and 6 Yellow Wagtails , with just one Marsh Harrier high over . Not a single Lapwing or Redshank seen . I did get some consolation on the way home when I called

in at Sevenoaks Reserve , and after a short wait was treated to Marianne's Kingfisher outside Willow Hide .