NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

  A brief visit to Denbies Hillside this morning, just as the air was starting to warm up. At least 200+ Chalkhill Blues (top) were already dancing above the downland sward, but butterfly (and other) invertebrate numbers were generally low. Both Silver-washed and Dark Green Fritillary was recorded. Also pictured above are Comma (middle) and Ringlet (bottom). Maybe the sudden shock of hot weather over the weekend will get more invert action, but you do wonder how our butterfly and moths have fared with this wet and cool summer.

Chalkhill Blues are, to me, redolent of sunny warm skies. We are lucky here on the Surrey chalk downs that in a good year the slopes can shimmer with milky-blue as thousands dance above the sward - but not this year. They seem to be in depressed numbers. The downland flora has been rather compromised this summer, with the dry and warm March, April and May ensuring that little flowered and left behind stunted and dried up blooms. The Chalkhill Blue food plant, Horseshoe Vetch, can carpet large areas of the slope at Denbies Hillside, but on my visits this summer it has been in short supply. This is where today's photograph was taken. Talking of the weather,  The Hairy Birder blog  mentioned his dissatisfaction with the online weather forecasts, and how they vary. I have noticed this as well. I check three sources - Met Office (often wrong), BBC (correct more often than not) and XC Weather (not bad but always over-estimating wind strength). How three sources, using similar, ...

Epsom town centre is but a five minute drive from home, or a twenty minute walk away. When I visit I normally choose 'shank's pony' over the car for several reasons - fitness, boosting my green credentials and the chance to do a bit of nature watching on the way. This morning I wanted to go to Waterstones to buy a bit of summer reading - I'm old fashioned that way, I like to actually pick up objects that I want to buy, to feel them and look at them rather than order them online - and would, by the way, normally choose an independent bookseller over a chain, but Epsom does not have one. But I digress... There are a number of routes to take into Epsom town centre, and the one I took was extremely rambling, taking in a good section of Epsom Downs, then the historical old part of town which is full of Georgian and Victorian architecture, cottage gardens and mature trees. My trusty compact camera came along 'just in case'. I'm glad it did. It was clou...

An 'up and down' wander along the open slopes of Denbigh's Hillside and White Down was the order of today. The sun couldn't decide whether to come out or stay in, and a persistent westerly wind didn't make for ideal conditions to watch butterflies in, but it remained warm and there was plenty to observe. The Denbigh's sward shimmered with the milky blue of at least 400 Chalkhill Blues (above), with a couple of pristine male Adonis and 80+ Common thrown in for good measure. White Down was where the Silver-spotted Skipper action was taking place (above), at least 20 being found. They did not want to settle, and I was lead on a merry dance several times trying to follow them in flight, which I find difficult to do - they often seem to disappear into thin air! There were Red Kites on view throughout my four hours on site, including a group of three that gave close views, including one bird that, obviously curious as to what I was, circled around me s...

Clouded Yellow of the form helice, a welcome surprise this morning. The first CFBW Bird Group ‘Butterfly and Plant’ walk was held today, which I co-lead with Paul Goodman. Our group comprised 20 in total, with familiar faces such as Peter Wakeham, Peter Alfrey, Neil Stocks, Ian Jones and his wife, Ian Magness and, of course, David Campbell (who ensured that there were at least one pair of eyes trained onto the sky). We basically walked along Chipstead Bottom and then looped through Banstead Woods before retracing our steps back to the Holly Lane car park. It was a great success, with a total of 23 species of butterfly being seen, including a magnificent helice form of Clouded Yellow, which performed immaculately for the cameras. Also seen were a Painted Lady, 3 Silver-washed Fritillary, 50+ Chalkhill Blue and 5 Purple Hairstreak. Plants were not to be outdone, with a single (unflowering) Cut-leaved Germander, a new White Mullein plant being found at a new site, Pale St.J...

Where can you get a surfeit of food, drink, Tom Petty and The B52's? If you happen to spend the weekend with a certain resident of Littlestone in Kent, such rewards will be yours... but you will also have to put up with Ashes cricket coverage, a few jokes and much chat, but someone has got to put up with it and I bravely accepted the invitation to do so. Thanks Mark! After admiring his beautifully tended and stocked garden I spoilt its ambience by putting out the MV trap. Despite Saturday night being breezy we recorded 35+ macro species, including Coast Dart and L-Album Wainscot (above). During Saturday afternoon we dropped into Dungeness Bird Observatory where there was a gathering of the 'old-timers' from the 1950s, 60s and 70s (plus some newbies who have only been going to the shingle for thirty years). And what did the assembled ornithological minds talk about? Moult in gulls? Pipit identification? The demise of the Turtle Dove?. No, the subjects ranged from hip ...