9th July - Old Winchester Hill, Hampshire

Another hot day and I wasn't intending to stay out too long, but I wanted to see if Old Winchester Hill had the same concentrations of butterflies that were present at Martin Down last Saturday.

With the temperature touching twenty five degrees as I pulled into the car park it was clearly going to be a warm one.  I set of along the top oath and coming out of the clump of hawthorn quickly found a Six spot Burnet on the Field Scabious amongst the grasses.

Marbled White were everywhere, maybe not like the concentrations seen at Martin, but an impressive sight nonetheless.  This male settled on a thistle flower in the grass.

An Essex Skipper on the flowering thyme.

Plenty of yellow grass on the top path under a azure blue sky.

I walked close to the brambles where alot of flowers were now gone over.  But where there were flowers there were butterflies, Meadow Brown and a single Comma and plenty of Gatekeeper.  In amongst them were Red Admiral, Peacock and several Painted Lady.

Skippers were busy amongst the grass, several Large Skipper and this Small Skipper.  I was to see a lot of these as I walked through the grass.

The Rosebay Willow-herb putting on a show.

The number of Small Copper at Martin were a surprise and there were at least five here at Old Winchester Hill today.

Rather than walk around the slope U stayed on the path to the fort.  This Small Tortoiseshell flew past me and then settled in the vegetation by the side of the path.

This Blackbird was either anting of sunbathing.  I hadn't realised I had caught a Meadow Brown flying past.

I walked up to the fort and then took the footpath down the south slope.

A small Heath close to the side of the path.

We had seen Chalkhill Blues at Martin on the weekend so I was hopeful there would be some here today.  As I walked down the slope they started to appear, pale blue butterflies flying very close to the ground.  They were also not stopping and I feared I wasn't going to get some shots, but then I found this two resting.

Then on cue the top blue opened its wings to show the lovely pale blue and brown colouring.

The top butterfly flew off leaving the other to continue to pose nicely.

In total there were thirty seven Chalkhills on the slope and having been satisfied with the shots I turned and walked back up the slope.  It was this walk that convinced me not to tackle the longer slopes back to the car park.  I struggled and was very pleased to reach the fort and the cooling breeze.

AS I walked around the moat a Dark-green Fritillary settled on the knapweed showing off the green wash on the underside that gives it the name.

Walking around the moat there were more skippers, Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns.  Brimstones were also appearing, they always seem to be the last to emerge on a day.

As was the case at Martin on Saturday the distant fields looked wonderful in the summer sunshine, the crops bleached a lovely colour.

Even though I wasn't going to walk down and the hills I did walk back along the slope.  The sides of the area were covered with yarrow and hemp acrimony.

Another Painted Lady attracted to the hemp acrimony.

Back on the top path it was pretty much of the same, Meadow Brown, Marbled White and Gatekeepers amongst the grass and on the bushes.  Wild flowers everywhere.

I walked to the gate that leads down the slope from the car park.  Looking down these Field Scabious had the perfect dark background.

It was now getting close to 11:00am and it was very warm.  I had been here two hours and managed to see 24 species, the same as the weekend at Martin.  But there were two species here, not seen at Martin.