Monday 24th. August 2015

Stuck indoors today with a temperature only half of what it was Saturday and pouring with rain , so a chance to look back on a couple of recent visits .
The slope below Biggin Hill airport produced a 50-50 split male to female Chalkhill Blues , 5 Brown

Argus and 4 Small Heath , amongst the more common species . A very pale female Gatekeeper , pictured , was also recorded . With many fruits ripening , like these Wayfarer berries , the 'A' word I feel is fast approaching . On the way home , a quick look in at High Elms was very quiet , so I made a point of looking at the Violet Helleborine , the un-browsed flower spike is still surviving , and a look

at the variegated Broad-leaved Helleborine showed that it did flower , but only managed two and several 'duds' at the top of the spike .
A visit up on the Downs in not the best conditions found Chalkhill Blue numbers well down on previous years , but surprisingly , Brown Argus numbers on par with Common Blue , they certainly seem to have had a very good season . On the way around , I found another female Roesel's Bush-

cricket and managed to get a clearer picture . That's about 6 seen this year , so have they always been around and just haven't spotted them before , or are they having a good year too ? On a log pile , no

sign of the hoped for Grass Snake , but a juvenile Common Lizard was enjoying the sunshine and

towards the back of the pile , a very confiding adult took no notice of me , or the Macro lens hood which was almost touching  it . Two Adders were seen , but both evaded the camera , but a group of

Slow Worms didn't . Females right and centre and a male , with blue spots , bottom left , the one with a smile on his face . Only other interest found was a very fresh female Red Admiral , a species that

has been hard to find this year , recorded just twice on the High Elms transect so far .
Arriving home , Carol told me that there had been a large dragonfly around the pond all afternoon , so

I went for a look and found a female Southern Hawker , busily ovipositing in the moss around the pond . I then spent ages trying to get a close up of her ovipositor , even moving flower pots without spooking her , but her abdomen and wings were constantly on the move and 99% of the attempts

went in the bin , but one shot was successful . This curved blade is normally in a sheath beneath segments 8-10 , but when ovipositing is lowered and used to cut a small slit into the chosen material , then a single egg is then deposited and is protected from would be predators .
Fellow enthusiast Keith and myself , have been waiting for an opportunity to search for Brown Hairstreaks , and on Saturday we headed off to the River Mole , South of Gatwick Airport , as unfortunately the species isn't recorded in Kent , although I know of some sightings just over the border in Surrey . We arrived about 0900 with the temperature already in the low 20s C , and within 10 minutes had the first of 8/10 sightings . Great , but they were all around the tops of trees or non-stop fly-byes . We checked large areas of Blackthorn and a nearby meadow but we didn't have a single sighting down low . By midday it was clear that we had failed and decided to move to another site , around the old railway station at West Grinstead , now part of the Downs Link , a great area for walkers and cyclists , and being a sunny day , had attracted both in number . We decided to walk North , checking the Blackthorn bushes which line both sides of the path . We checked a large meadow , full of Common Fleabane and other nectar rich plants , but only found a Brimstone , a few Meadow Brown and a couple of Brown Argus . Fortunately , some parts were shaded by the trees on either side almost forming a tunnel which gave some relief from the sun . Butterflies here too were few and far between , but a flash of orange disappearing into the shade proved to be our first Brown Hairstreak of the day , a female that was egg laying deep in the vegetation . Within a short space of time a wave of cyclists came by and spooked her . Keith went to investigate another meadow whilst I carried on down the track , finding another female BH , and in a more photographical position , on

the vegetation on the edge of the track . I called to Keith then looked up and down the track , and found walkers and cyclists approaching from both directions . Fortunately , Keith managed to get a

few shots , before the cyclists arrived and once again spooked her . Neither were seen again , but I went back to where the first was egg laying , and after a while managed to find one of her eggs ,

surprisingly on Privet , not the normal Blackthorn . We carried on up the track for some time only finding the more common species of butterflies , but also several Migrant Hawkers , this male

stopping for a rest high up , between feeding sorties . We eventually turned round and retraced out steps back towards the car park , still checking every bush . We didn't get another BH sighting , so we

had to make do with a herd of Red Deer in a neighbouring field , the stag , as can be seen , in full antler . Having a late lunch in shade near the car , we had at least 3 Silver-washed Fritillaries . We decided to make a stop on the other side of Gatwick Airport on the way home , another BH site . By now the temperature read 29 C on the car thermometer , but it wasn't too far to the Blackthorn area . We failed to find BH on the visit , but \I did find a couple of plants of interest . The first was Betony /

Betonica officinalis , a member of the Labiate ( square stems ) family , and from that same family ,

Skullcap / Scutellaria galericulata , but much weaker specimens than the ones found at Westbere Lakes earlier in the year . A moth found during Biggin Hill visit ,  has been identified by Martin as

The Shears , thanks for that Martin .
And finally , on the 18th . , there was a commemoration flight by 25+ Spitfires and Hurricanes that

took off from Biggin Hill and returned an hour later . These were just four of the flight remembering 'The Few ' . As you can see , the light was awful that day .