20th August - Hook, Warsash and Titchfield Haven, Hampshire

Showers were forecast today and all around as I drove south the clouds were dark and threatening.  The plan today was to start at Hook, specifically the TLC field for Horses on Workman Lane.  I parked up and walked around to the field.  Swallows were all around the overhead wires, juvenile birds having just fledged and waiting to be fed by the parents.

I walked up to the area known as the Donkey Field which currently doesn't have a donkey in it, and had a Wheatear pointed out to me in the field opposite.

There is a fence line that runs east alongside the Donkey Field and this is the area where the chats get at this time of year.  There were two Stonechats present and a very distant single Whinchat.

I was though here for the Yellow Wagtails, two flew over calling but kept going.  I walked around the filed and checked the horses and found four feeding around the horse's mouths and feet.

Apparently there have been up to twelve in the area, the maximum I saw was four at one time.

I walked back to Workman Lane and concentrated on the swallows on the wires.

Here a juvenile Swallow still showing the yellow gape on the mouth.

You wait for the young bird to flap its wings and then you know the adult is coming to feed it.

The juveniles stayed on the wires, but the adults were also perching in the nearby oak tree, not something I have seen before.

Amongst the Swallows were a few immature Sand Martins.

And immature House Martins that were also perching in the oak tree.

I decided to walk down to the beach behind the sub station.  Walking down the lane there was a Whitethroat amongst the bramble.

And a little further along the obligatory Painted Lady.

As I came out on to the beach I disturbed two Curlew.

I wanted to check the gorse area to see if there were any Whinchats and Wheatear, but it was very quiet, with nothing moving at all.

The clouds were bubbling up away to the west, rain was coming and the wind had picked up.  The clouds look very impressive in black and white.

Oystercatchers were moving, all mostly flying up Southampton Water.

When I reached the slipway at the bottom of the path that runs down adjacent to Solent Breezes holiday park I noticed a collection of gulls on the foreshore.  As I walked down to get a closer look I passed a Common Gull on the beach.

There was a ring on the left leg, however the only characters I could see was the number '3', which isn't going to be much use in getting information.

I initially thought the bird to be an adult but on a closer look you can see that the tertiaries are in moult which would indicate that this is probably a third year bird moulting into the adult plumage.

The gulls on the foreshore were Mediterranean Gulls, adults having lost their black hoods but retaining the pure white plumage, a black smudge behind the eye and the lovely red bill.

From Warsash I drove around to Titchfield Haven once more.  I parked on the sea wall and away to the west there were very dark clouds that were threatening rain.  I decided to try and watch out the possible storm by having lunch in the Meon Shore Hide.  Things hadn't changed much from my last visit, the water level was high and the young Common Tern was sitting with the parent on the wooden perches.

There was only a splash of rain as the storm passed to the north of us, but this did provide a lovely dark sky to photograph the Common Terns against.

For some reason everything went up on the scrape and then flew around for awhile.  This brought the Black-tailed Godwits close to the hide, this individual passing right in front of the hide.

Eventually everything settled down and from nowhere a Spoonbill appeared at the top end of the scrape.  

I wanted to check the bay for the reported Garganey so walked around to the viewing platform to find there were no duck.  This bird has made a habit of disappearing, so it may possibly be still around maybe in front of the closed Suffern Hide!.

Watching from the bridge a Common Tern fished in the river water.

Another patch of heavy dark clouds were threatening from the west, the onshore winds helping the many wind surfers out on the Solent.

The clouds were very dramatic over Fawley.

The rain hit as I was driving along the A27 and M27 home.  At times visibility being reduced to the car in front.  Water was everywhere but probably not being collected in the right places.  By the time I turned onto the M3 it was dry and remained so all the way home.

8th August - Long-tailed Blue - Portsdown Hill, Hampshire

Back in October 2023, there was a small colony of Long-tailed Blue butterflies on Portsdown Hill, over the last three years the site has been checked but they were not found.  This week though at the same time the report of the Queen of Spain came out a Long-tailed Blue was found in the very same spot.

After the success with the fritillary we decided to head south to get another rare migrant of the UK.  After an hours drive we arrived at the car park, had lunch ten crossed the road to the spot with the bench.  The sun was in and out with some cloud about and as we arrived it went in and a butterfly buzzed around and then settled once the sun was behind the clouds.  A close look and there was the Long-tailed Blue.

The Long-tailed Blue is an extremely rare migrant to the British Isles.  The most noticeable influx occurred in 2013 when Long-tailed Blue were seen at 9 sites in Devon, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent and Suffolk. Mating pairs, eggs and larvae were also found, confirming that the species had successfully bred and, on 8th September 2013, the first of the offspring emerged in Wiltshire and Kent. Sightings from other counties followed, with sightings continuing into October.

The adult butterfly has a jerky and rapid flight that is very similar to a hairstreak, but flies closer to the ground. It is also a strong flyer, borne out by its ability to migrate over large expanses of land and water. This butterfly possesses a pair of "tails" that give this species its name, together with an eye spot where the tails meet the wings. These act to divert a predator, such as a bird, away from the essential body parts. When at rest, the butterfly will rotate the hindwings which causes the tails to move, diverting predators from the more-important parts of the body.

This was a female, with the brown upper wing, the males being a graduated blue.

On the continent, this butterfly is considered a pest of pea crops, one of the larval foodplants, where it can cause considerable damage. This butterfly is continuously-brooded on the continent but again like the Queen of Spain is unable to survive our winters, who knows.

The white stripe on the hindwing looks a little faded which suggests these are migrants.  Who knows what has attracted them to the exact same spot as last time three years ago.  The chances are that now these will breed and that there will be a second brood in October.

They can quite feisty and will chase off butterflies much larger than themselves.

When the sun was out at least two were flying around the area, but as soon as it went behind the clouds they settles on the grass stems.

Alo in the area were a Small White.

And of course a Painted Lady.

We decided to go back and try and find the Brown Hairstreak, but once again the search was fruitless.  Quite bizarre we had seen two extremely rare butterflies in the UK today but could not get to see an endemic!

However there was always the Swallows once again flying around the cropped grass.

And a confiding Holly Blue where the Brown Hairstreak should have been.

Some lovely cloud formations looking south from the bottom of the slope, again looking impressive in black and white.

I doubt there are many days when you get to see two rare migrant butterflies in the United Kingdom, so it was special.  Who knows maybe as our climate changes we will see more of these exotic butterflies reaching our shores