4th July - Martin Down, Hampshire - Part Two

So faced with what to do we opted to keep going and pretty much circum navigate the reserve.  This entailed walking down to the car park at the north end of the reserve just off the A354.  We walked through the grassland of the rifle ranges with more Dark-green Fritillaries buzzing about.  As we approached the car park there was a Holly Blue around the gate and the surrounding bramble.

We crossed the road and made our way up the footpath and then turned right into another wonderful grass field, full of knapweed and thistles.  It was though still quite overcast.

I realised it would be good to try and photograph every species of butterfly seen, so stopped for this open winged Gatekeeper.

While this Meadow Brown appears to have fallen a sleep in its food.

The Small Coppers kept coming and were performing brilliantly on the flower heads, both on the wooded side of the path and amongst the grasses.

Butterflies we hadn't encountered on the walk along the dyke started to appear,Large Whites frustratingly at the back of the bramble and unreachable, but the Small Whites were a little bit easier.

At last a settled if rather worn Small Skipper.

And completing the set of currently available skippers a Large Skipper.

Ian was keen to find Purple Hairstreak and was shaking the lower branches of the oak trees.  He didn't initially flush any hairstreaks, but did disturb this Scarlet Tiger Moth.

Peacocks were everywhere, we managed to count 54, but there was probably more that we just didn't see, they seemed to be everywhere.

The bramble was turning up new butterflies this one of five Comma seen.

This Small Copper sat nicely on a grass seed head with the perfect background.  We counted 23 Small Copper all around the reserve.

Finally Ian's shaking of the oak tree branches paid off and we found this Purple Hairstreak at eye level on the oak leaves.

We saw three individuals but no doubt there were plenty more amongst the many oaks along the path.

By now the sun had broken through the clouds and it was warming up, this bringing many more butterflies about.

The path then would turn south and continue around the reserve, but there was a gate where the old Roman road headed east.  Immediately on the other side of the gate there were tall thistles and ragwort and these were attracting many butterflies so we had to go in and see juts what was about.

First up was another lovely Dark-green Fritillary, this time conveniently nectaring on the thistles and showing the lovely green wash on the underside that gives the butterfly its name.

Only the second Painted Lady of the day was nectaring on the Ragwort.

And one of eight Red Admiral, just resting.

Marbled Whites had an incredible day, we counted 111, but there must have been many more.  At one point we walked through thegrasses and there were clouds of the Marbled White and Meadow Brown coming up in front of us, a wonderful sight.

This rather worn Marbled White nectaring on a thistle flower with the perfect background.

But as we watched the butterflies we were treated to a display by a moth, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth to be precise.  It hung around the thistles and allowed us to play with shutter speeds as it nectared like it's namesake the hummingbird around us.

Nectaring amongst the thistle flowers even at one six thousand of a second shutter speed the wings were difficult to freeze.

Love the background on this one.

These are the closest I will get to photographing one of my favourite birds in this country.

We came back on to the reserve elated by the hawkmoth encounter and then made our way through the grass to the road.  On the way we flushed so many butterflies it was wonderful to see them on what was now a beautiful day.

We had to search for the gate on the other side of the road and on finding it we had to scramble through the bramble and branches.  Coming out the other side we were treated to some other wonderful views that were transformed by shooting them in black and white.  Big sky country, endless grass and lovely white wispy clouds.

And another view in colour.

This was my attempt to capture the wonderful array of wild flowers amongst the grass.  Unfortunately it doesn't do it justice.

The round walk was a distance of ten kilometres or six miles in old money.  It was a wonderful day and as we got back to the cars a Quail was still calling from the same field.

A total of twenty four butterfly species seen and these are the counts, from a wonderful day.

4th July - Martin Down, Hampshire - Part One

Today was going to be a butterfly day at Martin Down, but as I travelled west and through the New Forest it was overcast, but quite muggy.  I met Ian in the car park at the bottom of Sillen Lane and as I got out of the car I could hear the unmistakeable call of a male Quail coming from the field on the other side of the hedge that lines the path.  No matter how much you try, getting to see this diminutive game bird is almost impossible, so you go on the 'wet my lips' call.

And so it was we left the car park and headed towards the Bokerly Dyke along our familiar path.  Despite the overcast conditions there were butterflies about, mostly Gatekeepers on the wing, but also a few Marbled White roosting in amongst the grass.  This male a little wet from the dew.

The one butterfly we were here to see was the Dark-green Fritillary, as we approached the ditch we disturbed two in the grass.  These, too, were also a little quiet but the grass stems did get in the way.

A stunning fast flying butterfly and we expect to see many more later as the day warms up.

We set off along the familiar path alongside the dyke.  Looking out across the grassland to the fields beyond, the pastel colours of the fields standing out against the dark green hedgerows.

A bit of a surprise though as we walked was this blue butterfly.  At first we thought it was just a Common Blue, but closer examination it turned out to be a Chlkhill Blue.

Then the first of what were a count of unprecedented numbers of Small Coppers. 

Despite the overcast conditions Martin Down was looking a picture with a myriad of wild flowers amongst the grass.

Ian then found this just emerged Five-spot Burnet, the wings not fully pumped up yet.

Meadow Browns were flying along the dyke and this Ringlet that had weaved through the grass to settle on this hazel bush.

The Marbled White, whilst many were on the wing, several were resting amongst the grasses.

A newly emerged Brown Argus on a grass stem.

Yellowhammer were singing around the reserve, as were the Corn Buntings.  This bird singing from the top of a hawthorn bush.  Corn Bunting are late breeders whic is one of the reasons they have become rarer over the last few years, hear though they cam prosper around the grassland of the reserve.

It was till overcast but warm and more and more butterflies were emerging, A small skipper appeared in the grass and it was possible to get quite close and you can clearly see the black blobs at the end of the antennae that make this small skipper an Essex Skipper.

We actually saw this blue butterfly flying and it appeared very pale, fortunately it settled on  a flower and we could see it was another Chalkhill Blue.

This stood out amongst the purple knapweed, an all white specimen.

We reached the next footpath crossroads and there was a large clump of bramble where this Green-veined White showed very well.

We walked on towards the old rifle ranges.  I walked out in to the grass to drop to eye level to photograph this Corn Bunting.

We walked on to the short cropped grass area, primarily to look for the Frog Orchids, but they were not about, probably gone well over by now.  We did come across this Chalkhill Blue that was so much in torpor it allowed me to let it sit on my finger.

In the long grass around the smaller ranges there were plenty of Dark-green Fritillary and while some were stopping the majority just wheeled there way though the grass stems.

These were the flight shots in amongst the grass.

Plus also this male Marbled White on a Knapweed.

It was still overcast and we had even experienced some drizzle as we walked the dyke.  We now had another decision to make, do we walk back the way we had come, or do we walk around the reserve?  To be continued.....