Surrey's Glanvilles on the Wing

Our colony of Glanville Fritillaries are flying at Hutchinsons Bank for the next few weeks, they started to hatch exactly the same weekend as on the Isle of Wight. At the moment Hutchinsons Bank is the only colony of this rare butterfly on the UK mainland.

Duke of Burgundy Noar Hill

Jenny and I made a dash to Noar Hill Selbourne to see the Duke of Burgundy. I havn't visited the site for many years, the last trip it was closed due to Foot & Mouth Outbreak. It was dull and quite cold when we arrived. No butterflies were seen, but a Early Purple Orchid was in full flower.

After a break for Lunch the sum came out for an hour, and within a few minutes we found our first male Duke.

Later a darker male flew past up the face of the hollow and i found it just over the top settled on a Cowslip flower.

In another hollow i managed to find a Dingy Skipper.

It was good to see the Dukes in good numbers on a dull cold day, in the warm sunshine they would have been around in numbers.

Glanville Larvae on the March

Today at Hutchinsons Bank, several Glanville Fritillary larvae were marching across the bare ground, looking for pupation sites. In 3 or 4 weeks the butterflies should be around.

Wisley Butterflies in The Greenhouse.

Butterflies in the Greenhouse. Butterfly Conservation Surrey and South West London Branch, are manning a stall this week, with a few samples of British Butterflies and Moths.
Here are a few of the tropical butterflies seen there today.

Wisley Dragonflies, Bookham Hairstreaks, Denbies Hillside

We are now at the last few butterfly walks of 2014

The first walk was at Wisley looking for dragonflies.

 Southern Hawker

 Common Darter male

female Brown Hawker ovipositing

 The first Bookham Common Walk had a good turn out, and on the plains we found a female Brown Hairstreak flying around the blackthorn bushes, she rested on bracken for a few minutes for photos.

 The Denbies Hillside walk was also in sunny weather, and Autumn Ladies Tresses had just started to come up into flower.

 Brown Argus

 Two Clouded Yellow were also seen, the female above was looking to lay eggs

the male was resting in the herbage, and allowed close-up pictures.

Zebras

Here is a picture from my butterfly house in the garden, the zebras set up a roost and return to it every night, at the moment they have 4 roosts, as they all cant fit on the main one.

Recent Walks and Outings

Its been a busy two weeks, with lots of outings and walks.
The first was at Reigate and Colley Hills at the end of July.

Butterfly Conservation Surrey Branch members looking for Silver Spotted Skippers
The Vale End walk was well attended as usual, several Clouded Yellows were seen flying fast over the grassland.

 A well worn Dark Green Fritillary was still hanging onto life, just.

 The find of the day a Silver Spotted Skipper, on the western limit of its Surrey distribution.

The following day was a bus outing to Eastbourne, just after the fire on the pier.

at Cow Gap a few Chalkhill Blues were on the grassland, five male Wall Browns were landing on bare ground. The highlight of the day a female Clouded Yellow.

The outing to Dawney Heath and Brookwood Cemetery was in good hot weather

The Railway West walk would have a very good surprise at the lunch spot. The walk up Beggars Lane gave a lovely Speckled Wood sighting.

 On White Downs, i suddenly shouted Grayling as one flew up from the path, this a chalk Grayling, which was the first chalk sighting since 1962, they were known from the downs until that date, this was a female so hopefully her offspring will give us more regular sightings in future years. So well hidden on the chalk soil.

The group then walked down the hillside to Denbies Carriageway.

After several days of bad weather, and just fitting my two butterfly transects in before the rain set in, a trip to Steyning Riffle Range, with Greenie, today, Wall Brown and about 6 Clouded Yellows were seen first. Then at noon 12.01 exactly a female Brown Hairstreak was seen low down near the blackthorn.

She posed for some nice pictures. The weather then turned to dull, then rain, so we headed home very pleased with the pictures.