Thursday 8th. August 2013

It was pay-back time this morning following Martin's call re. the Clouded Yellows at the weekend . I picked Martin up and arrived at High Elms shortly afterwards , and headed straight for the bottom glade which had produced most White-letter Hairstreaks on the full transect yesterday . The sun had only reached one half of the glade , but several WLHs were already breakfasting on the Canadian

Golden Rod . 8/10 specimens were found during the visit and Martin got some good video footage , but I'm sure when the glade filled with sunshine , the numbers would be even larger . We pushed on along the bottom path , arriving at the bottom of Burnt Gorse , where we started to find several

female Silver-washed Fritillaries . At the far end , we found both male and female , but she was not interested in his advances and he finally got the message and went on his way . We had a look from the gate overlooking Musk Orchid and Downe Bank , and whilst listening to the calls of a juvenile

Common Buzzard in the distance , watched a large Corvid fly over the valley , a possible Raven ? With just the 100mm. lens on the camera , it was a long distance shot . Shortly afterwards , an adult

Common Buzzard appeared and started quartering the valley bottom , no doubt hoping to shut up the juveniles plaintiff cries . After visiting the two smaller glades , we arrived at the Orchid Glade ,

which also was only in partial sunshine , but still produced another 5 WLHs , all on Hemp Agrimony , and a very fresh Red Admiral , along with the expected species . When we arrange the visit to HE , the intention was to go on to Hutchinsons Bank , and , tongue in cheek , find some freshly emerged female Clouded Yellows , to prove the theory that the males found at the weekend and since , were the offspring of the female that Martin had found on the site several weeks ago . On arrival , we made straight for the Cutting where most sightings had been made . With varying

amounts of cloud cover , two active males were found during the sunny periods , this one about to

nectar on Marjoram , but with cloud cover they took up their positions on patches of open ground . But after a while , and no females seen , we decided to look higher up on the site , and it wasn't long

before the first female was spotted . Slightly larger and in the right light the lighter spots on the black border on the topwing could be seen through the underwing . The flight we noticed was also an identifying point as she was more 'flap and glide' compared to the fast , direct flight of the males . I followed this female for some time trying to get an open wing shot , and although she teased a few

times , I felt it wasn't going to be . As we watched her , she was slowly but surely heading for the steps that lead down to the Cutting and at the top of the steps we found a second female , which also seemed to be heading that way . With many stops on the way , the two females eventually did the right turn we were hoping for , and they were in the Cutting , where carried on nectaring . Within a

very short time , one of the males came bombing along the Cutting and found her . Another few

seconds and the pair had coupled . With that female busy , we turned our attention onto the other one who had reached the bend in the Cutting . She too was quietly nectaring when another male swooped

down on her , both finishing up on the ground . Another few seconds and they too were coupled , but

we had to encourage the pair to move off the ground , just in case of an accident . They were quite

happy to do so and got on with their business on a seed head of Greater Yellow Rattle . We took the opportunity to catch our breath whilst looking six weeks ahead , when the whole of the site could be flooded with the species . Martin had his video camera with him , and set it up on a tripod filming the first pair that coupled , an left it running . After a couple of minutes a third male arrived on the scene and tried to separate the pair . Martin has posted some brilliant stills from the film taken , and can be seen on his blog , a link is on my side bar . Up the far end of the Cutting , a third female appeared ,

and I spent quite some time following her , trying for some open wing shots . Before leaving the site , both very satisfied , we made one last search for any other females but didn't find any . We did however find a pristine male , second brood , Small Blue , which finished off a great day just perfectly . Can't wait for the end of September .