28th May - Martin Down NNR, Hampshire - Part Two: Butterflies and Flowers

Continuing on the day at Martin Down this part of the blog focuses on the butterflies, moths and flowers, mainly orchids, that we found.  This part of the day didn't start until after meeting up with Ian, although while walking the slopes and watching Buzzards, Ravens and a Peregrine I did come across the first Cinnabar Moth of the day and year in amongst the grasses.

It was a beautiful morning

We walked the long path and climb to the ditch, where were quickly found the Greater Butterfly Orchids, another of Martin Down's specialties.

The Greater Butterfly Orchid is a distinctive plant of hay meadows, grasslands and ancient woodlands on chalk soils.  Its flower spike can grow quite tall, displaying up to 30 whitish-green flowers in a loose cluster from May to July. The spreading sepals and petals of the flowers look a bit like the wings of a butterfly.

The Greater butterfly orchid has a tall flower spike with loosely clustered, whitish-green flowers, each with spreading sepals and petals. It has a pair of broad, shiny, elliptical and spotless leaves at the base of its stem. The very similar Lesser Butterfly-orchid holds its two pollen-bearing structures inside its flowers parallel and much closer together.

And so we set off along the ditch, initially down hill and into what was a very fresh northerly wind, despite this there were butterflies, the first a Small Heath.

Next up was what Initially thought was a Grizzled Skipper, but getting close it was a Mother Shipton Moth.  This moth is named after a prophetess (sometimes regarded as a witch) called Old Mother Shipton, who according to legends was born during a thunderstorm in a Yorkshire cave in 1488. Old Mother Shipton is described as having a long, crooked nose and a big, pointed chin. The moth was named after Mother Shipton because the markings on its forewings are thought to resemble her face, can't see it myself.

A Common Blue.

And the first sighting this year of a Small Blue.  In fact the Small Blue turned out to be everywhere along the ditch, the most numerous butterfly of the day.

The Common Spotted Orchids were just at the start of their flowering period, this one nicely framed by the surrounding foliage.

The chilly wind was keeping the temperature down and after such a glorious start to the day with clear blue skies, clouds had built up and was restricting the amount of sunshine which also kept the temperature down.  As a result the butterfly activity was restricted, however in some sheltered spots they could be found just like this immaculate Brown Argus.

I paused at the slope alongside the path that leads alongside the copse where the Spotted Flycatcher were found.  It was a nice sheltered spot and as a result there were plenty of butterflies.  This Common Blue nectaring on the trefoil.

But the special butterfly was the Adonis Blue, the males showing off their electric blue colours.  It is not always possible to recreate the striking colour they have but this was a good representation.

We were walking the ditch in the hope of finding another Martin Down specialty, the Marsg Fritillary.  It is getting to the end of their flight period but there had been reports in good numbers from last weekend so we were hopeful that there may at least be some still around.  However the walk so far had produced nothing, still there was time.

As mentioned earlier, Small Blues were everywhere, this one sitting in the middle of the leaf

Then a nice find, a Green Hairstreak, they are quite a common butterfly but often over looked.

The green hairstreak is a small, fairly shy butterfly that spends most of its time perched on vegetation or sunbathing. Adults fly in the spring, between April and June, and males can sometimes be seen chasing each other in the sun. Found in dry, scrubby habitats, including moorland and heathland, the caterpillars feed on a variety of plants, including gorse, broom and bilberry.

Adult green hairstreaks emerge in spring, and the females lay their eggs. After a week, the caterpillars hatch and feed. In July, they make their way to the ground to pupate and overwinter in the leaf litter. New butterflies emerge the following the spring.

Another spectacular Adonis Blue

Another Brown Argus showing this time the underwing pattern.

And this time an actual Grizzled Skipper.

We had seen very briefly a fly past by a Painted Lady, but a little further along one settled on a bare area at the bottom of the ditch, another first for the year.

As we tried to get closer it flew up, but fortunately settled on leaves close by.

We had reached the location of the Burnt Tip Orchids.  In order to protect these little plants from being accidently stepped on they had been ringed with chalk stones, however this didn't work for everyone as several people had walked by them, despite the fact that they were looking for them.

This small orchid can be difficult to spot. Plants grow from a tuber which is replaced each year and tend to grow in small clumps. Pale green leaves form a rosette from which a flower spike holding between 15-50 flowers emerges.

Interestingly the flowers smell of honey but the orchid does not produce any nectar.

In the same area there is another rare plant of chalkland, the Fleawort.  I have written about this plant repeatedly over the years and swore I would not photograph one this, but then a Five-spot Burnet went and settled on one.

We continued along the ditch in hope of finding the elusive Marsh Fritillary with out any luck, but the other butterflies were still about.

An Adonis Blue showing the electric blue contrasting with the dark greens of the grass and leaves.

And another Small Blue, this time probably just emerged showing the clear white fring around the wings.

We had walked across the grass in search of Grey Partridge without any luck and coming back I found a small clump of Sainfoin, a bushy meadow plant with cone-shaped spikes. It is an aromatic perennial with masses of dark red flowers turning pink. Sainfoin is also known as French Grass, Holy Clover and prefers to be in full sunlight.

We crossed the grass back to the ditch, close to the Rifle Ranges there is a good gathering of Common Spotted Orchids, with some really impressive individual flower spikes.

In the same area we found another Green Hairstreak that showed much better than the earlier one.

Moving on we came across another day flying moth, a Burnet Companion.

On reaching the upper car park we decided to cross the road and explore the remaining area of the reserve.  A line of tall trees (dominated by rather ill looking Ash trees), provided shelter from the brisk northerly wind and the temperature felt a little better here.

At the foot of the trees were banks of bramble, some with a good development of flowers.  However despite the flowers there were few butterflies.  It was perfect for a Red Admiral, it took some time but eventually one appeared.

We also found the first Large White of the day nectaring on the bramble flowers

Next up the first Meadow Brown of the year, very early this year, the earliest I have found one, the previous earliest was on the 30th May at Stockbridge Common.  It is the one occasion that you get excited about photographing a Meadow Brown, after that the novelty wears off quickly

The path turns south and heads towards the road.  It follows another copse with Bramble along the fence and here we found a female Brimstone.

A Green-veined White was also attracted to the bramble and it was possible to get the shot right with the exposure and and a lovely black background.

A little further along another day flying moth, this time a rather spectacular looking Wood Tiger.  A species of woodland, downland and acid grassland, this attractive moth is locally distributed over much of Britain. The males often fly in sunshine, but the females tend to be mainly nocturnal.

My favourite Small Heath photograph of the day.

We crossed the road and made our way along a path that clearly had not been walked for a while.  The path was leading towards the upper car park, but once we were able to see the rifle range mound we struck out across the grass.  As we did so we said "you never know what you will find" and we didn't and was surprised to come across a group of Greater Butterfly Orchids..

The big sky scenes at Martin Down align themselves to black and white photography, this is always enhanced by the presence of big fluffy clouds.  The clouds were breaking up now to provide more sustained period of sunshine and a lovely landscape.

On reaching the ranges we made our way back to the ditch in the hope that the Marsh Fritillary would show.  More sunshine and a slightly warmer temperature played in our favour now.  We reached the group of Common Spotted Orchids photographed earlier and we stopped to look again.  Turning to look along the ditch I noticed something orange in the vegetation.  Now I had been seeing these through the day and they would turn out to be dead leaves or branches.  This though was what I hoped for, a Marsh Fritillary.

It sprung from the flower head, but settled amongst the leaves

Moving again it settled on a flower alongside Ian's leg, his trousers providing a nice background.

Then it was gone again and we lost it. We searched but could relocate it so we consoled ourselves in the fact that we had at least found one.  Before moving on I turned my attention on the Common Spotted Orchids

But just as we were to set off and leave the area the Marsh Fritillary reappeared.

There are three main habitat types for the Marsh Fritillary: damp grasslands dominated by tussock forming grasses and chalk grasslands (usually on the west or south-facing slopes in England - Martin Down provides both along the ditch) and shorter coastal grasslands (in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).  Temporary colonies may also exist in large woodland clearings and in other grasslands.

The Marsh Fritillary has the most colourful upper-sides of all of our fritillaries, being a highly-variable chequered pattern of orange, brown and yellow markings. The bright colours fade after a few days and leaves the butterfly with a shiny appearance

We left the Fritillary, to several other admirers and moved on.  We were not able to find anymore Marsh Fritillaries, but there were a few more butterflies to enjoy before we reached the cars.

A male Brimstone with another lovely dark background

And a mating pair of Adonis Blue with another lovely background

All in all a very successful day, two of the Martin Down bird specialties, Turtle Dove and Spotted Flycatcher, plenty of orchids to enjoy.  Hare and Roe Deer and of course the butterflies, sixteen species of butterfly and five day flying moths.