21st June - Blean Woods and Leybourne Lakes CP, Kent

We were down in Kent for the weekend visiting my daughter and son-in-law and on the Saturday I had the chance to get out.  At this time of year the focus isn't on the birds but on the rae butterfly found in Kent, the Heath Fritillary, so with my on-in law, we set off for Blean Woods on the outskirts of Canterbury.  I have been here before on a couple of occasions, but missed in tlast year.  The last visit was in 2023 and the weather was decidedly different, overcast but mild with rain showers.  I managed to see a few, but it was nothing like the first time I visited in 2022 when they appeared to be everywhere.

Today was forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far and as we drove the M2 towards Canterbury the temperature was recording 27 degrees celsius at just after 9.00am.  You park in a side street and then walk across the road and down a footpath into the wood.  Once you pass an RSPB sign there is a clearing on the left hand side known as Cook's Clearing and it was here the search began.  There were plenty of Meadow Browns on the wing, but no sign of the Heath Fritillaries.  At this time of day as the temperature rises, they roost on the bracken leaves and we quickly found one.

Then others appeared on the bracken and several were now on the wing but not settling.

Amongst the Meadow Brown, a single Ringlet, showing off the spots that give it the name.

We left the clearing and walked along the main path.  Another clearing was full of tall thistles that were flowering and this was proving a magnet to the Heath Fritillaries that by now appeared to be just everywhere.

The Heath Fritillary has historically been linked with the traditional practice of woodland coppicing, giving it the nickname of the 'Woodman's Follower' as it follows the cycle of cutting around a wood.

The male is the more conspicuous of the two sexes as it patrols clearings in search of a mate. They can be seen flying close to the ground alternating a few flicks of their wings with a short glide. The female has a much more laboured flight, weighed down by her load of eggs. Having found a suitable area, she will crawl around the vegetation before laying an untidy batch of up to 150 eggs. These are typically laid close to the foodplant on the underside of a Bramble leaf, or on a dead leaf. Both sexes can often be found in the company of others as they bask on shrubs.

The Heath Fritillary is distinguished by its dusky wing colours. It is restricted to a few specialised habitats where it flies close to the ground with characteristic flits and glides.

The Heath Fritillary is a highly-threatened butterfly that would, almost certainly, have become extinct in the UK were it not for conservation efforts over the past two decades. Restricted to Exmoor, a few woodlands here in Kent, and some in Essex, and the Cornwall/Devon border.

The thistles were an attraction to other butterflies, my first Silver-washed Fritillary of the year patrolled the area but never settled, while a couple of Small Skippers enjoyed the opportunity to nectar.

A Small White appeared and went straight to the thistle flowers, the flowers were in full sun and the butterfly backlit against a black background which produced some stunning images

A close up of the insect nectaring.

We left the clearing and walked on.  The Heath Fritillaries were everywhere, the numbers well into the hundreds. 

Meadow Browns are not a butterfly that is photographed that much after the first ones are seen in early June, but this male caught my eye as it sat on an Oak leaf in the sunshine with the lovely black background.

We turned off the main path and walked along a ride.  An open clearling with Bracken and Bramble not only had Heath Fritillaries but also a couple of marauding Sliver-washed Fritillaries, one of which settled on the stem of a small shrub, this time with a lovely washed green background.

This powerful flying butterfly is named after the the silvery wash on the underside of the hind wing.  This can appear slightly greenish in certain lights, but it lacks the distinctive white spots seen in the similar Dark-green Fritillary.

We walked a loop of the woods in what was now very hot conditions, the Heath Fritillaries kept on coming all the way back to the car.  Birds seen and heard were Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Song Thrush and Wren.  On previous visits I had heard and seen Nightingale, but not today.  Hopefully I would come across them on the next place visited.

My daughter lives close to Leybourne Lakes Country Park in New Hythe.  This is one of the most reliable sights to see Nightingales and my son-in-law has had great fortune in seeing and photographing them this spring.  He was keen to show me the spots and hopefully the birds, so after lunch we set off in the heat.

As we crossed a stream, what seemed like a Nightingale flew across into the scrub, but we were not able to locate it.  In the stream, from the bridge there was a Banded Demoiselle male.

We followed the paths to the spots where the Nightingales have been seen, but without any luck, there were though plenty of Damselflies, this a Common Blue male.

There are twelve lakes in the area, some of which the public can use, others are owned and managed by fishing associations, the attraction being large carp, that today we could see in the shallow water, probably spawning.  With them was this Terrapin, an escapee of just something that was let go here.

A lovely Red Admiral on one of the many bramble bushes around the park.

Our walk took us out to a view point that overlooked the River Medway.  The river is tidal here as it winds its way out into the north sea just past Chatham.  The river rises somewhere on the Kent Sussex border.  In this heat, with the tidal mud exposed, it felt like you should be seeing crocodiles bask on the shore.

Walking back the wind was picking up and away to the west the clouds looked a little menacing, the hot weather soon to break.  In one of the grass areas I came across this mating pair of Green-veined Whites.

As we walked down one of the tracks we finally heard a burst of Nightingale song.  It appeared to be quite close to the path.  We waited and managed to see it move from bush to bush and deliver more snatches of song.  Eventually it flew in front of us, across the path and away out of sight.  No photographs, but it was nice to both see and hear the bird.

We followed a stream where there were Black-tailed Skimmers.

And at one of the fishing pegs there was this pair of Small Red-eyed Damselflies mating.

Despite the intense heat of the day, it had been very successful.  Wonderful to see the many Heath Fritillaries once again and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the many places around the country park.  I will definitely make sure I come back in the early spring when the Nightingales are at their very best.

17th June - North and East Kent

A trip to Kent to visit my daughter provided an opportunity to catch up with two special butterflies while some shopping was done.  I didn't make up my mind about where to go until the last minute, so as I left Snodland I decided finally on a trip to Dover, or to be more accurate St Margaret's at Cliffe, a very smart village to the east of Dover.  The journey took just under an hour and I came into Dover via the the A20, then passed by the port with its many trucks and huge ferries and headed a short distance east before turning off to St Margaret's at Cliffe.

St Margaret’s has a very unusual and rich history for such a small place. Its proximity to Dover and the English Channel and its great natural beauty has made it both an attractive destination and an important place to defend. It has also, unusually, been home to famous celebrities such as Ian Fleming and Noel Coward.  Until the 19th Century the village was a small farming community clustered around an unusually large 12th Century church, St Margaret’s, with the locals undertaking a little smuggling and fishing from its beautiful cliff fringed beach.  In the 1880’s the Earl of Granville saw a chance for development on the fields overlooking the sea. He built a select hotel on the cliffs, The Granville Hotel. 

The village became a thriving fashionable seaside destination for the wealthy and middle class. Large new houses were built on the cliffs and as many villagers were engaged in providing cleaning, washing cooking, waiting, driving and gardening services for their new rich residents as there were working on the local farms. Shops and pubs thrived and many locals took in paying guests to help the family income.

The village has other claims to fame. The first cross channel telegraph cable was laid from St Margaret’s Bay to France in 1851.  The lighthouse at the South Foreland was the first in the world to be lit by electricity and the scene of many early wireless experiments by Marconi. Henry Royce designed Rolls- Royce’s first aero engines in his house ‘Seaton’ here at the outbreak of WW1 in 1914.

My association with St Margaret's doesn't go back so far, in fact only about twelve years, but if it hadn't been for the village I would not be writing this blog now.  Back in 2010 I followed a blog that was a photo diary of the wildlife around the village, I would check every day for updates and became very interested and intrigued by the almost daily going ons.  This inspired me to start my own blog around my village of Four Marks which has now progressed to this one you are reading now.

I was here for a special butterfly, over the last week at least two Swallowtails had been reported, the butterflies having crossed the channel from Europe, a welcome migrant for once.  They had been seen in the area of Bockhill Farm and the Dover Patrol Memorial.

I followed a very bumpy road to the car park by the memorial.  As I set off i stopped to talk to a person with camera and binoculars, he gave me the news I did not want to hear.  There had not been any sign this morning, but he pointed out the areas in which they had been.  So I decided to give it a go.  A path leads across the cliff top, with wheat fields to the left as you headed north and the sea and a very long drop to your right.

I could hear Corn Buntings singing rom my left with several birds on the fences and bramble.  This one was carrying nesting material, Corn Buntings nest late which is one of the reasons for their recent decline, but allowing for this in farm practice has helped to start a reversal in fortunes for the largest of the Bunting species.

Singing with a background of wheat.

My immediate concern was the complete lack of butterflies, conditions looked perfect, plenty of grass, Kidney Vetch, Red Valerian and Ox-eye Daisies.  The weather was not as hot as recent days and the sun was hazy but this shouldn't affect the butterflies.  I realised I had walked a little too far away from the area the Swallowtails had been seen, so I turned and walked back.  A liitle further on two Peregrine were flying straight at me, I managed to get the smaller of the pair, the male as it passed over my head.

On the edge of the cliffs were hawthorn bushes and clumps of Bramble and other white flowers that I couldn't identify, perfect for the butterflies if there were any.  In amongst the grass here were many Pyramidal Orchids, a little more advanced that the ones I had seen the previous week.

I made my way back towards the car park area, this was the view looking in the direction of Dover.

There is a café close by and a path led around the back with plenty of scrub and bramble but no butterflies.

There was though a singing male Whitethroat.

I went for another circuit and met a couple who were on the look out too.  As we stood talking I noticed a small Blue in amongst the vetch.

So at least I had found one butterfly. There were in fact several more, all in amongst the kidney vetch.

I circled around again and found a pair of Large Skippers.

And then a Small Heath.

I had been walking around the area for about two hours with very few butterflies about let alone a large yellow Swallowtail.  To say my mood was not good was an understatement.  With a limited time I had to make a decision, do I stay here and see if it appears or do I go after the other specialty, the Heath Fritillary in Blean Woods.  It was a hard decision, the Swallowtail would be a UK lifer, I had seen Heath Fritillary last year, but really wanted to see some more and this would be the only chance this year.

So with a heavy heart I elected to leave and drive to Blean Woods on the west side of Canterbury.  After an uneventful drive I parked and headed into the wood.  The hazy sunshine had gone, it was now overcast, but still humid with a light breeze.  As I walked down the bridleway you would have expected to see butterflies, but again there were none about.

The best place to see the Heath Fritillary in these woods is a place called Cook's Glade, the area is managed by the RSPB and as I reached the Glade I could see they had roped off a lot of the area.  Last time the area was open and you could get close to the butterflies, today it was about the butterflies coming to you.

As I turned into the glade two Heath Fritillaries were pointed out to me, at least I was getting to see one of my targets today.

This butterfly has historically been linked with the traditional practice of woodland coppicing, giving it the nickname of the 'Woodman's Follower' as it follows the cycle of cutting around a wood.

The Heath Fritillary prefers sunny, warm and sheltered habitats of two main types; coppiced or newly felled woodland on acid soils (where Common Cow-wheat is abundant), and sheltered heathland valleys on Exmoor (where Common Cow-wheat grows as scattered plants on mineral soils amongst vegetation dominated by Bilberry).

The Heath Fritillary is one of our rarest butterflies and was considered to be on the brink of extinction in the late 1970s. Strange as it may sound, the extinction of the Large Blue in 1979 was to work in favour of this species, since the shock felt by many entomologists resulted in a renewed effort to conserve the Heath Fritillary. This required detailed knowledge of this butterfly's requirements and, as a result of research and appropriate habitat management plans were put into effect that saved this butterfly from extinction.

The Heath Fritillary is confined to a small number of sites in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in south-west England, and in Kent in south-east England, where it has also been reintroduced into sites in Essex. It is absent from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Although very local in its distribution, this butterfly can be seen in large numbers at some sites in good years. This butterfly is widespread on the continent and can be one of the commonest butterflies seen in some regions. This butterfly forms discrete colonies and rarely strays from the main breeding grounds.

The butterfly prefers sunny, warm and sheltered habitats of two main types; coppiced or newly felled woodland on acid soils (where Common Cow-wheat is abundant), and sheltered heathland valleys on Exmoor (where Common Cow-wheat grows as scattered plants on mineral soils amongst vegetation dominated by Bilberry).

With no direct sunshine there were about a dozen Heath Fritillaries lounging around on the bracken and small oak trees.

A nice head on view.

Another view.

What I was hoping for was a view of the underside, the checker board pattern.  I managed to find one with the wings closed on some bracken.

One half way open on bramble flowers.

The only other butterfly seen was a Meadow Brown.

I decided to walk to a clearing where last year I had some brief views of Nightingale.  Once again as I entered the area which was a lot more overgrown than last year, but there was a Nightingale calling with that grated call.  With some perseverance I managed a short and quick glimpse.  But then it started raining, those large rain drops crashing into the broad Sweet Chestnut laves.  I sheltered to see if it would ease and it did a little.  I decided to head back to the car, but stopped to see if the Heath Fritillaries were hiding from the rain.  The one with wings closed was still there out in the open unconcerned by the rain.

Looking at the radar there was some heavy rain about.  I looked to see what was about and decided on a short drive to Oare Marshes, a reserve I have never been to before.

The rain became quite heavy on the drive, welcome relief from the heat of the last few days and welcome water for the parched land.  But unfortunately it doesn't last long and any dampness quickly evaporates, so as I arrived at the Oare Marshes car park the sun had returned and you would never have known it had rained.

A road runs through the centre of the reserve to the estuary, or the Swale.  On either side of the road is the marsh with open water on the eastern side known as the East Flood.  The tide was up so there was no opportunity to see anything along the shore line so I walked back down the road to view the East Flood.

We are now at the time of year when the duck start to moult into their eclipse plumage, feathers appear around the shore and on the water and the duck sleep off the time on small islands.  I could see Shelduck, Gadwall, Shoveler and Mallard dotted around the water, however a report of a Garganey was the reason I was here and a drake was feeding relatively close to the view point.

The classic white stripe that runs over and behind the eye was fading, but still visible.  It was constantly upending and it wasn't easy to capture the duck with its head up

A flock of Black-tailed Godwits flew in and almost immediately started chattering amongst themselves.

A pair of Common Terns flew over the road and away towards the Swale, while Swallows hawked around the reeds and over the water.  I decided to walk on and check the hide on the east south part of the east side.  A path goes from the road and on both sides there were singing Whitethroat.  A male Stonechat appeared on a gate.

There was a sign on the hide warning users that there had been a fire and that there was a hole in the floor, a little different from the way it would be handled at Titchfield Haven!  The hide looked out over quite dense reed so there was nothing to see.  I returned to the path and continued on, a male Reed Bunting was singing from a bush by the side of the path.

During the breeding season, males can be spotted perched high on reeds, rushes or scrub, voicing their simple, three-note territorial call. Females breed low in the dense vegetation, constructing their nests from grass, reeds and moss. If a predator comes close, it may be drawn away by one of the adults acting as if injured.

The path led to the sea wall.so I turned back, on the other side of the road there was supposed to be another hide, but apparently this was damaged in a recent storm.  There was also according to the map open water but I couldn't see it, the grass and reeds were dense and there was hardly a path at all.  The one highlight on this side was a female Marsh Harrier hunting over the reeds.

So I made my way back to the road and the view point over the floods.  The Garganey was still upending and the Black-tailed Godwits were feeding spread out in front of me.  On a far pool I could see a Greenshank, but there was no sign of the reported Spotted Redshank.

The majority of the Black-tailed Godwits were still in summer plumage.

And as is usual squabbles would break out if one came too close to the other's feeding area.

With time beating me I spend the last few minutes trying to photograph the hawking Swallows, this was the best I managed.

I would imagine Oare Marshes is a place to visit in winter and I will return, but today was all about two butterflies, one that didn't show and one that did.  However when I got home I saw a report that the Swallowtail was seen again in the afternoon.  Oh well some you win and some you lose.