Hi Wurzel Thanks for the comments again
Saturday 2.8.2014 Stephens Castle Down
My wife had taken the boys away for a few days to visit friends, this left me to my own devices but also car- less
I came up with the wonderful idea of making an evening visit to my local downland site, by bicycle
It is a 20 minute car journey so why not, I thought although I might end up regretting it. My aim was to find butterflies settling down for the evening to roost. Although I am not a regular cycler I did the journey in about 45minutes without stopping and arrived on site at about 6.15pm with slightly wobbly legs
This is an east facing site so with the sun rapidly setting some areas were already in shade and butterfly activity was minimal. Just the odd brief flutter of a Common Blue, Brown Argus or Skipper.
- Common Blue
- Brown Argus
After visiting this site regularly over the last couple of years I have come to learn the best spots for roosting butterflies so I headed straight for these areas. Last time I visited this site I was dismayed to find that large areas of the site had been trampled completely by livestock (I do not know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing). Today the site was much the same but the livestock seemed to have gone. There were small islands of untrampled vegetation consisting mainly of common Knapweed and grasses. It was some of these islands that played host to numbers of roosting butterflies. There were definite hotspots where there were several individuals and species together. Once I had seen one and got my eye in more and more became apparent.
- Roosting Common Blues
Once I had exhausted the roosting areas I was familiar with I set about discovering some new ones. In one new area approximately a metre square I counted 15 Common Blues, 1 Brown Argus, 1 Meadow Brown and a Small Skipper
I got slightly carried away again, lost track of time and realised at 7.40 that the light was going fast. I had no lights of course and my route was down narrow country lanes with no footpath
I made a quick exit and cycled as quick as my legs would manage (much slower than the outward journey)
- Roosting Common Blues and guest
- Evening at Stephens Castle Down
Thursday 7.8.2014 Shipton Bellinger
After several unsuccessful attempts at finding Brown Hairstreak at Noar Hill last year, I decided to head for Shipton Bellinger. A day off work just happened to be well timed and although I should have been decorating I managed to get a couple of hours in
I remembered all the information that Neil Hulme had given me at Steyning last year and arrived on site at 9.45, well before the 'witching hour'. Having never been to this site before it was a bit of a voyage of discovery finding the best spots. The first thing that became apparent was the large number of Speckled Wood along the main track as well as several Holly Blue and lots of Gatekeepers and Green Veined Whites. There are a couple of moderately sized Ash trees along the track and it was at one of these that I was to have my first ever encounter with Brown Hairstreak. This was quite early on, some fluttering around up in the canopy resulted in the butterfly coming to rest well up in the tree but in such a position that I could clearly see the wing shape silhouetted against the sky. At another Ash tree towards the end of the track there were half a dozen or so butterflies chasing each other around the tree top. Some were definitely not Hairstreaks but some certainly could have been. At the end of the track the terrain becomes more open there is scrub as well as a large open meadow/field. Here there were plenty of Blues in action. All those that I studied closely were Common Blues but I am assure there are also Adonis Blues at this site as well. Here I met up with another UKBer 'Craigbirdphotos' who was also on a similar mission looking for his first Brown Hairstreak. We headed over to the far edge of the field and started scouring the trees, bushes, brambles etc. We walked the whole length of the tree line without success but there were good numbers of Blues, Brimstone, Whites, Peacock, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper as well as Small Copper, Brown Argus, Small Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral. As we started back along the treeline I spotted a Brown Hairstreak nectaring high up on one of the few remaining Bramble blossoms where it stayed for some time too far away for me to get a photo. A short while later, after being joined by some others, we spotted another one low down on a Thistle. This time I was too gentlemanly to push my way in for a photo and it flew before I got close. After that I was under pressure to get back to decorating although I could have stayed all day. I added Comma to the tally as we left
- First time I have ever managed to photograph a Holly Blue
This site is always highlighted for Brown Hairstreak to the point where I think the other species present tend to get overlooked. This is actually a delightful place with lots of potential considering it is apparently not managed for wildlife. It would be interesting to visit in the spring to see what was on offer. I was quite pleased with a total of 3 Brown Hairstreak. I had been saving my partially drained camera battery for Brown Hairstreak so subsequently took hardly any photos. However, I did manage to get my first ever photo of a Holly Blue which I have posted although it is poor. This site seemed to be particularly blessed with Holly Blues something that I also noticed about Steyning Rifle Range (another Brown Hairstreak site) last year. Maybe the two species share common habitat requirements.
As I left I had a hopeful look at the Elms in the hedge line along the road for White Letter Hairstreaks, I saw none 
A beautiful Golden Ringed Dragonfly also put in an appearance. Hopefully this area still has a few surprises to offer.
I was there in the seering heat in the early afternoon and everything was far too active. Certainly too active for me with a new toy that I was unfamiliar with 
