Wednesday 23rd. July 2014

Having being told by fellow enthusiast Terry Laws on Sunday's butterfly walk that the Lesser Emperor dragonfly had been seen at New Hythe recently , I got permission from the 'resident Blogger' and headed off to try and see this species , that would be a first for me . Before Wrotham Hill I was in sunshine and cloud , after it was solid cloud , and so it was as I arrived , and for some time before those clouds broke . Finding a lightly spot , I passed the time watching a noisy flock of

Lesser Black-backed Gulls , showing off their acrobatic flying skills . Every now and again , a pair

got into a fight , plummeting  down still engaged in combat until disappearing behind surrounding

trees so I never saw the final outcome . With the sun came a few Odonata sightings , Brown Hawker ,

Black -tailed Skimmer ( pictured , this male obviously very active with the ladies from the amount of blue pruinescence that has been rubbed off his abdomen by their legs during mating ) , Common Darter and Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselfly , but no sign of the hoped for Lesser Emperor . A bit later , three birders came by , one being Terry , who after visiting the scrub area over the railway , joined me in the search . Still without a sighting , we decided to move along the lake to a

more sheltered area , on the way finding an immature male Southern Hawker , and the search continued . Having found Red-eyed Damselfly on Lilly pads earlier , Small Red-eyed Damselfly

were found at the new spot , identified not only by size but by the blue on the underside of segment 8.
In the time in this area , we had three fly-by sightings of a male Lesser Emperor , enough to make positive ID , but not enough to get a shot , most frustrating . In between sightings , we had several visits from a female Emperor Dragonfly , ovipositing on floating vegetation and here on a branch

sticking out of the water . The end of her abdomen can be seen well into the material as she deposited a single egg . I also noticed a piece of vegetation about 3cms. long , with a caterpillar type grub at

one end , moving like a snake on sand , propelling the vegetation along . We weren't sure if it was in

trouble or not , so decided to rescue it . On dry land , it stayed in it's tube just showing it's head . Unsure of what was best to do , I returned it to the water but very close to the bank , in case it was trying to get to land . Next time I looked it was gone . Any ideas would be appreciated . Before leaving , we decided to have a last look at the first area again , on the way finding a Brimstone

Moth , and on arriving , couldn't believe our eyes to see a male Lesser Emperor in combat with a male Black-tailed Skimmer . They soon parted and the LE settled just 1 mtr. off the ground and 3 mtrs. away , with no obstructions between . We grabbed our cameras , and as we were about to hit the button , the male BTS returned and chased off the LE , not to be seen again . So near but so far , but by far the best sighting of the day . We did wait for the hoped for return , and whilst waiting were

visited by a family group of Mute Swan . All day long , we had been plagued by horse flies , and at one stage Terry swatted one that fell to the ground . Before it recovered I picked it up by the wing

and got a few shots to ID the species . Checking the books when I got home , it appears to be

Chrysops relictus , a member of the Tabanidae family , and how about those for a pair of eyes . As Terry and I were about to leave the car park , we heard a Turtle Dove 'purring' near the Millstream . We went and tried to see it and although it called another couple of times , we didn't see it .
Today was an away day with Martin , starting at Chobham Common where the target was Grayling .

Already hot on arrival , a walk to the top of the mount did find the species but  didn't cool us down , but a few of these very plain butterflies that usually land on the ground with wings closed were

found . One actually did show a bit more underwing than the others did , shame about the dead grass

in front . Just two Silver-studded Blues were found , including this female , in what looked perfect habitat for the species . Only other interest found were lots of tunnel webs of the Labyrinth Spider /

Agelena labyrinthica , and at the entrance to one was a spider , legs in front , ready to rush out and grab anything landing on it's web . Our second site was up on the Downs above Dorking , where the target species was Silver-spotted Skipper . Walking in the heat was bad enough , walking uphill was really hard work , but it was worth it when we got to the site to find good numbers of SSS . The heat also meant that none were staying still , especially the testosterone charged males , and a photograph of one was almost impossible . Some of the females were egg laying , which gave a better chance of a

photo like this one . When she moved on , I searched for her egg , finding it laid singly on Sheep's-

fescue grass , the sole food plant of the species . Any eggs layed will remain as such through the Winter , hatch in the Spring , pupate and appear as adults this time next year . I did finally manage to

get a male in the viewfinder , while he was attempted to court the female above him . His chat up line can't have been good though , as soon after , she flew off , leaving him in his own . Our last stop of the day was a quick look around Hutchinsons Bank , where we were pleased to find two female Chalkhill Blues on the wing , the offspring of adults seen on site last Summer .