RSPB Dungeness

Jayne and I had a trip around RSPB Dungeness on 1st August. We spent a couple of hours on the reserve, and saw some nice birds, insects and a couple of Harbour Porpoises.

Birdwise we saw, amongst others Dunlin, Lapwing, Common Tern, Little Egret and heard Bearded Tits.

Insects were in good numbers, and included Common Blue Damselfly, Emperor, Brown Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common and Ruddy Darter, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and Painted Lady.

One of the Emperor dragonflies landed in a bush, and allowed some photos, as did a male Black-tailed Skimmer.

Emperor

Black-tailed Skimmer

After visiting the reserve, we had a walk down to the beach by the lighthouse, where we spotted a couple of Harbour Porpoises in the sea ( and a dead one on the beach) and several Herring Gulls on the beach.

Harbour Porpoise

Silver-spotted Skipper

Whilst researching places to visit in East Sussex, I noticed that there was a species of butterfly, the Silver-spotted Skipper, present on and around the South Downs. As it has a very restricted distribution in the UK, and we'd never seen this one before, Jayne and I decided to have a walk in the area around the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head, to see if we could find it.

Beachy Head

We started our walk at the National Trust's Birling Gap car park, and walked up onto the Downs for a couple of miles to the Belle Tout Lighthouse (now a B and B) and Beachy Head.

Seven Sisters and Birling Gap

At the start of our walk, we spotted a couple of Small Skipper, and the first of dozens, if not hundreds, of Gatekeepers. As we continued up the cliffs we added Dark Green Fritillary (1), Chalkhill Blue and Meadow Brown to the list of butterflies seen, before finding the first Silver-spotted Skippers just below the Lighthouse.

Chalkhill Blue

As it was a lovely sunny day they were quite tricky to see, but we eventually managed to get a few photos.

Silver-spotted Skipper

Trengwainton Gardens - Penzance

On 22nd July Jayne and I visited a National Trust property called Trengwainton Garden near Penzance. We enjoyed a lovely walk around the grounds, and recorded some great butterflies and dragonflies.

The first insect we saw was Beautiful Demoiselle, with a minimum of 4 males seen on the stream by the main path.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Also present on the same stretch of stream were 1 Large Red Damselfly and two Golden-ringed Dragonflies.

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Walking up to The Terrace, the sun came out and so did the butterflies. A minimum of 6 Red Admirals were feeding on the Verbena, along with Small Tortoiseshell (2), Gatekeeper, Painted Lady (1), Comma (2), Large White and a single Common Darter dragonfly.

The final insect of note was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth that Jayne found feeding in the walled garden.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Fermyn Wood - 7th July 2019

Jayne and I had our first visit to this woodland site in Northamptonshire today to take part in a guided walk lead by the East Midland's Branch of Butterfly Conservation . The main species we were hoping to see was Purple Emperor, and we managed to see 1 flying past. Unfortunately, we didn't get one on the ground, so no photo this time. Still a very good butterfly to see, and a new one for us both.

The other species that we wanted to see was Silver-washed Fritillary, and this time we got great views and some super photos of both males and females.

Silver-washed Fritillary (male)

Silver-washed Fritillary (female)

Other species seen were: Ringlet (everywhere), Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Comma (2), Painted Lady (4), Meadow Brown, Red Admiral (1), Large White and Small White.