Piddenhoe - 30th August 2017

We tend not to often to try and see vagrant butterflies in the UK, but some times it is good to drive to a different venue now and then. We have seen Monarch on Scillies in 1986. We tried a couple of times for Long-tailed Blue, once in Hampshire as we were driving back past a location where one was present, but got there too late, and it was overcast and cool, and once during their fairly common occurrences in Kent and Sussex, but as my father was terminal ill during the peak sightings period, we only got down late in their occurrence, actually too late. There are reports they re-appeared at one site for a couple of years afterwards, but due to the activities of a collector, further emergencies were suppressed. Always one self centred individual ruins it for the rest of us. An out date behaviour as is egg collecting.

For a change of scene we headed down to Piddenhoe, East Sussex for an attempt to see any of the three male Queen of Spain butterflies present there. Initially it was slightly overcast and odd spits of rain, but after 30 or so minutes the sun came out, and butterflies started to move around, and after a short while someone picked up what is described as male 2, male 1 being rather warn, and male 3, the best example, but showing far less often. We only got to see male 2, five Clouded Yellows, and two pairs of Adonis Blues, a Brown Argus, plus Small Copper, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Large and Small Whites.

male Queen of Spain Fritillary

Small Heath 

Small White 

Meadow Brown

 Large White

 Small Copper

male Adonis Blue 

female Adonis Blue  

Clouded Yellow