I don't know where to start with today's blog. How we found five lifers for me ? How I had to overcome my fear of heights to get up and down steep chalk grassland ? How I only fell over once ?
So I'll start at the beginning. I was out today with Susy and Paul, a couple who have an interest in all things nature related, but who have a particular passion for butterflies. At my patch I get excited if I see a Painted Lady or a Brown Argus, but today we were hoping to get three species that I particularly wanted to see, and we succeeded.
Our first port of call was Malling Down, part of the Lewes Downs. It is primarily a range of chalk hills and is a designated SSSI.
We had been on the start of the trail for less than five minutes when Susy spotted my first new butterfly. A female Wall. She was quite flighty, and I couldn't get any decent open shot wing photos, but it was a moment I wont forget especially as she stopped several times to apparently lay eggs.......
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| female Wall |
As we went further up the trail we found more female Walls, and even a tatty male Wall, which was quite unusual as they only live for three days....
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| male Wall |
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| female Wall - closed wing |
Further along Susy found me two new Cricket species, lifers two and three for me......
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| Dark bush-cricket |
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| Roesel's bush-cricket |
As the trail got higher we found several Chalkhill Blue butterflies, another first for me....
But probably my favourite lifer of the day was the Silver-spotted Skipper. We had definitely visited on the right day, there were hundreds of these spread all over Malling Hill and with the sun warming up nicely, they were very active. I see Large and Small Skipper regularly on my patch, and I always thought they were so intricately designed but the Silver-spotted really is the most beautiful of all....
We saw several pairs getting 'frisky' but no actual matings...
One particular little beauty settled obligingly on a grass stem when the sun went behind a cloud and we got amazing close up details of it's light moss green underwings......
We racked up a good total of 20 species of butterfly today. The above three, Wall, Chakhill blue and Silver-spotted Skipper plus....
Common Blue....
Brown Argus...
Small Copper...
Marbled White...
Gatekeeper...
and several that I didn't photograph including Clouded Yellow, Brimstone, Small Skipper, Small White, Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood and Peacock.
We also saw four sepcies of day moth. A couple of the usual Burnets and several Small Purple and Golds, plus these two which I haven't had the id confirmed on yet....
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| possible Marbled Clover ? |
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| possible Four-spotted ? |
As to be expected there were plenty of critters including this mating pair of Robber flies...
and one of the Miramid bugs...
Not too many birds around but we did see Buzzard...
Kestrel...
Chiffchaff...
We also saw a pair of cronking Ravens and had a cracking fly by from a Hobby. We could hear Sparrowhawks calling from the woods by the allotments and briefly spotted an adult overhead.
Malling Down is a botanists dream with slopes covered in Wild Marjoram, Dwarf Thistle, Harebell, St John's-wort, Vipers bugloss, Common Centaury, Common Rock-rose, Horseshoe Vetch and this stunning rare Round-headed Rampion also known as the Pride of Sussex....
There was a lot to see and luckily for us, the weather was near on perfect, not too hot nor too chilly, mainly sunny with the odd cloud over.
The last high-light of our visit was looking for the Adonis Blue. They prefer the bottom of the south facing slope that leads from the top of Malling Hill down to a stretch of allotments. Which all sounds good in theory until I realised just how steep that slope was. On the top path I wibbled and wobbled, and had several mini panic attacks. There was no easy route down except for some well trodden diagonally crossing grassy and chalky paths. With nothing for me to hold on to I became a wimp and sat down. Paul braved the slope and I hope these photos capture just how steep the slope was.....
Paul called back up that there were Adonis around so we had to go down and join him.
Well it was a journey I will never forget..........all the way down on my bum ! Luckily I am well padded in that area so it wasn't a painful experience, just a bit uncomfortable and surreal.
And I got my last lifer of the day, a male Adonis blue. Small, exquisitely coloured, almost neon blue, and it was still two more steep paths away from me so I chanced a distant shot....
then it landed a bit closer.....
and when a cloud covered the sun, the little beauty stopped long enough for Paul to gently hold it on his hand......
It was mid afternoon by now. Paul and Susy wanted one more thing to round off this great day.
A Wryneck.
A few had been spotted in the area the previous day, and Paul is a bit of an expert on these elusive shy migrant birds. Over his lifetime he has seen 47 individual birds and today he wanted to get his 48th. We drove the short distance to Hope Cove, a beautiful spot near the Seven Sisters cliff face.
Leading down to the bay is a grass path surrounded by scrub with ant hills, all ideal habitat for the Wryneck. I've never been lucky enough to see one, but I was certainly willing to put in the time looking for one.
I was already on a 'high' from seeing four new butterfly species and wasn't expecting to see much more, but then I found my first autumn Whinchat, then another and another. The area above the cove was brimming with small birds....
Along with the above Whinchats, there were loads of Stonechats, most juveniles like the ones below....
but also the odd full plumaged adults. There were also good numbers of Linnets and a couple of Lesser Whitethroats, along with very good numbers of Common Whitethroats....
Susy couldn't resist the chance of some rock-pooling.....
and came back with these great photos....
Blennies....
anemone...
and a shrimp....
We stayed until late, hoping that the Wryneck would appear, and it wasn't until we were walking back to the car park that we realised we may have been searching in the wrong area. But with a view like this, I was not complaining....
I cannot put in to words what a great day I had. I know my body will complain over the next few days, but every ache and strain will be worth it.
To spend a day with such a knowledgeable couple was fantastic. Learning about a Wrynecks habits, how a Silver-spotted Skipper lands, what plants and flowers like the chalky grassland and why, and so much more, it was a really great day.
Susy and Paul, thank you so much for letting me tag along, for your genoristy, for your company, your patience and for being you. This was one of my most memorable day trips out. Thank you.
<3
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