2nd June - Portsdown Hill and Old Winchester Hill, Hampshire

Monday looked like the best day of the first week of June, the forecast showing sunshine for most of the day.  With reports of Marbled Whites at Portsdown Hill and a chance the orchids may have progressed I decided to head there first.  I was hoping today would be a good butterfly day.

The view as I parked was lovely in the morning sunshine, the tide out in Portsmouth harbours, but sufficiently deep for the warships that were at anchor.

It didn't take long to find the Marbled Whites, there were several flying amongst the short grass as I scrambled down the side of the hill.

A stunning male looking like it has just emerged.

The last two visits here have been in overcast and damp conditions so it was wonderful to see the chalk of the Portsdown cliff against the blue sky.

I was disappointed not to see any orchid spikes as I arrived at the triangle site.  It took awhile but I eventually found one Lizard Orchid, probably the same one Ian and I had seen just over a week ago.  It looked like it was suffering from the lack of rain, the flowers looking wilted and tired.

There wasn't any sign of the Bee Orchids, hopefully a little too early still, but there were plenty of Pyramidal Orchids just beginning to emerge.

Rather than climb the west side of the cliff I decided to retrace my steps back to the lay by where the car was parked.  A Buzzard was being mobbed by a Carrion Crow along the edge of the chalk cliffs.

Just before I started the ascent up the hill I came across another butterfly first for the year, the ubiquitous Meadow Brown, the first and maybe one of the last photographs of this commonly seen butterfly.

Other butterflies seen were a single Holly Blue, two Red Admiral and several Brimstone.

From Portsdown I drove over the downs to Old Winchester Hill, my first visit of the year.  I walked from the car park along the top path and was surprised by the short grass, normally by now this would be quite long and blowing in the breeze.  So with the short grass the only butterfly was the Small Heath.

Once I reached the flowering bramble things picked up, several male Brimstones nectaring on the flowers.

A very worn and faded Painted Lady flew past me, still, despite the state of the wings, a very strong flyer.  It settled on the bramble.

Then a little further along I came across half a dozen immaculate Painted Ladies, more indication that this could be a very good year for this lovely butterfly.

Just as I was about to leave the bramble I followed two orange butterflies, only one settled and showed itself as a Small Tortoiseshell, a butterfly that is becoming quite rare these days.

At the bridleway to the HillFort, on the other side of the fence a=was a bank covered with purple Vetch.

I walked through the Yew Forest and down on to the track that follows the slope to the fort.  Down below I could hear Red Kite calling and stopped to watch four birds all together, I think these were immature birds from last year collecting in the dead branches of the Ash trees.

Walking around the moat of the fort, what was noticeable once again was the short grass and lack of wild flowers.

With no flowers I didn't see a single butterfly on the walk around the fort.  Back at the gate the Red Kites had taken to the air, showing well below and at at eye level.

The view looking back towards the fort.

Walking down the slope towards the Woodpecker Wood there were several Common Spotted Orchids.

A white variant.

The commoner pink variety.

And I was also able to find a single Chalk Fragrant Orchid.

Walking through the wood there were plenty of Speckled Wood in the sunny glades.

This path shows how dry the hill is.

I only saw three blue butterflies, two Common of which this was a very worn and faded specimen.

And a stunning male Adonis Blue.

I sat at the bottom of the slope and ate my lunch, as I did so there were Meadow Brown and a single Marbled White about.  The walk up the slope saw the four Red Kite appear with a Buzzard and a pair of Raven fly over.  Not a bad start to the month, but it looks like the weather will not be very helpful for the rest of the coming week.

24th May - Portsdown Hill and Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

After the weather of the last few weeks the forecast for the weekend was not good, as a result Ian and I decided to go looking for orchids.  It was maybe a little early but we thought it was worth a chance, so we met at Portsdown Hill and made our way down the hill.  As we left the cars a Whitethroat was singing in a dead bush behind the cars.

It was overcast with a brisk breeze, but we managed to find this Small Blue sitting on a leaf huddled down in the grass.

We walked along the bottom of the cliff and into the grassland where last June we had found both Lizard and Bee Orchid.  It took some time searching through the grass and bracken and the search was looking quite fruitless until Ian found this Lizard Orchid spike.

It was a little surprising to see this Common Blue flying around amongst the grass.

A Five-spot Burnet moth nectaring on the buttercups.

As we started the climb back up to the top of the cliff we found this Small Blue, again, roosting on a grass stem.

The distinctive Portsdown Cliff along with the discarded toy scooter on the left hand side of the photograph.

Back at the cars we decided that with the weather it would not produce any butterflies elsewhere, and the orchids were would be after still had maybe a couple of weeks to go, so we headed for Titchfield.

After parking at Cliff Road we walked down to the new visitor centre where I renewed my subscription.  We decided to try the east side as there had been reports of Willow Emerald Damselflies around the boardwalk.

We stopped off at the "Walkaway" Pond and searched the reeds and Lilypads.  Ian then found this exuvia, the discarded skin of a Damselfly nymph.  These are sometimes also call carapace.

We found several more empty skins, but then struck gold with one where the damselfly was just emerging.

Dragonflies and Damselflies undergo incomplete metamorphosis; unlike other winged insects, such as butterflies, dragonflies do not have a pupal stage and transition straight from a larva to an adult. This transition, the final larval moult, takes place out of water. This metamorphosis is triggered by day length and temperature, and is synchronised in some species, such as Emperor Dragonfly.

The final-stage larvae sit in shallow water, near the margins, for several days, getting ready for their final moult and starting to breathe air. Most species leave the water during the morning, the larvae climb up emergent vegetation, although some may walk several metres over dry land before finding somewhere suitable to emerge. After finding a secure support, they redistribute their body fluids, pushing the thorax, head, legs and wings out of the larval skin. There is then a pause to allow their legs to harden enough for the next stage, when the abdomen is withdrawn. The wings, and then the abdomen, are expanded and start to harden. This process leaves behind the cast skin or exuvia, and the whole process lasts between one hour (Damselflies) to three hours (Dragonflies).

We decided to watch and see what happened.

Freeing itself from the exuvia.

Then edged away from the exuvia for the next stage.

Fluid was pumped into the veins on the wings, you can see the wings extending and firming up.

Extending the wings beyond the abdomen.

Then once the wings were complete the abdomen started to extend now beyond the wings.

Originally we thought this might be a Willow Emerald, but as the process went on we felt that maybe this was female Common Blue.  This was the last image we took and it looks like one from the markings beginning to form on the thorax.

The whole process took just over an hour, a time in which we had lunch!  We came back just before we left the reserve and the Damselfly had gone.  It was amazing to watch regardless of the species.

A little further along the boardwalk towards the Knights Bank hide, we found some orchids.  These were Southern Marsh Orchids, looking splendid amongst the emerging horse tails.

We headed back to the harbour where the drake Eider that has been around for a few months now.  Today it was sitting on the mud, something you only see along the north east coast, so quite a privilege to get quite close.

The Mallard all came over to us thinking we had food and the Eider seemed interested too.

Eventually taking to the water and swimming towards us.

It did change its mind and turned and swam with the current out of the harbour.

We walked around to the west side and had some time in the Meon Shore Hide.  There were the Avocets still with their two chicks and several more on some of the other islands.  Common Tern could be seen nesting too.  There was only one Black-tailed Godwit.

On the small island in front of the hide the Black-headed Gulls were either sitting on eggs or feeding chicks, this gull was sitting on the chicks and they came out from under the gull.

And food was regurgitated and fed to the chicks.

 

There was some Marsh Harrier activity around the scrape, but they did not come too close, the gulls and Avocet keeping them away.

The other point of interest over the scrape were the Swifts, at least half a dozen, maybe more were swooping over the scrape.

A day that was made interesting by the find of the emerging damselfly, whatever it was!