9th May - Magdalen Hill, Hampshire

After last weeks short trip to Noar Hill, there was the opportunity to visit another butterfly reserve within the same sort of distance radius of 15 minutes.  It was also a glorious day, temperatures as we arrived at around 22 degrees and endless blue skies.  Walking up the path into the reserve there were Blackcaps singing from the scrub inside the reserve.  As we walked along the path into the main chalk down of the reserve a male Brimstone flew past and settled on a leaf in the adjacent hedge.

The gates into the reserve are covered in signs, signs about dogs, signs about breeding birds and signs asking whether you need to visit.  It is a little off putting which is I suppose what it is supposed to do, but with absolutely no one about, I considered nothing to be wrong in what we were doing.

Through the gates we approached the chalk pit.  However now with a difference, a path created by flints on either side and more signs warning of the need to stay on the path.  This is the place to find Small Blues.  There have been reports of them on the wing, but they were definitely not in the pit.  We did manage to find a butterfly, a fleeting glimpse of a Dingy Skipper briefly nectaring on the flower of a trefoil.

From the chalk pit we went through another gate with more signs (somebody must have spent a fortune on the A4 frames).  We took a path that led up to the top of the hill and out of the bushes to give some wondrous views across the down away towards St Catherine's Hill and the M3 motorway.  I was quite surprised as to how much traffic there was moving on the motorway.

The walk was being accompanied by the song of Yellowhammer and Whitethroat and while the Whitethroats did so from within the bushes only showing themselves when they burst into the sky and dropped back out of sight, the Yellowhammers would sing from a prominent perch

I had taken the wrong path and it was leading upwards, the best place to be here to find the specialists is down close to the road in the shelter of the bushes.  We continued to follow the path and finally it reached a gate with a path that led back down the hill.  Just before we walked through the gate Helen found a Small Heath settled on the grass.

The path headed down hill until we were able to enter the reserve once again at the bottom.  By the gate was a clump of the lovely Aquilegia or Common Colombine, other names include Granny's Bonnet which describes the lovely bell shape of the flower head.

In the reserve the grass was covered with lovely yellow flowers.  At first glance they could be thought to be buttercups, but on a closer look it is possible to see that they are a lot different and are in fact Common Rock Rose

Another Small Heath settled in the longer grass close to the hedges

Another Yellowhammer sang, this time from a very prominent perch of a dead branch.

Following the line of the hedge and trees at the bottom of the hill I finally came across one of the butterflies I was hoping to find.  I followed a small butterfly as it flew over the grass teasing with me as it stopped to investigate certain flowers.  It was small and I knew it had to one of the two and finally it gave itself up pausing on a small blue Bird's Eye flower.  The Brown Argus.

The shadows were a pain and I wonder what the white "C" is on the right upper wing?

Then it was gone, flitting away and out of view. 

Around the corner and I stumbled on the other species I was looking for, a Grizzled Skipper.

Skippers have a habit of just spring away and you then lose them, this did exactly that but I was able to find another that posed much better for me on another buttercup.

We made our way back up the hill disturbing a Speckled Wood to add to the list.  Walking back along the path towards the reserve entrance I stopped for a Common Blue.  But just as I focused on the spot it was buzzed by another smaller insect and flew off.  It turns out that "insect" was in fact a Small Blue and once the larger Common Blue was out of the way it settled in the sunshine.

Another first for the year and a pristine specimen at that 

A walk around the part of the reserve close to the main path up produced a hidden but singing Willow Warbler and a few Common Blues, one of which settled long enough for a photograph.

As we left to return to the car a Buzzard came overhead quite low.

A short trip, but a necessary one to get to see some of the spring chalkland butterflies that do not appear around Four Marks.