Late Summer Butterflies.

 

This year has been so busy with both my son's getting married, as well as hunting dragonflies and the Bulgaria tour I feel I have been neglecting the local butterflies. However, I have still managed several local walks to look for them, and there have been some very nice surprises along the way.

It was only 3 years ago that I had one of the top locations for the stunning Silver-spotted Skippers just a short walk away from home. Then in 2024 there was a big crash in numbers that was extremely worrying. The following year saw a tiny improvement, but still a long way from where it used to be. Fortunately 2026 has seen a big step back to where they should be. It has been lovely walking along the valley and seeing these little beauties buzzing around at breakneck speed.

Silver-spotted Skipper.

I also found another site that had improved numbers this year. On a day looking for, and failing to find any Grayling, I came across this newly emerged individual. The proboscis is actually still split towards the end. This is normal for newly emerged individuals and will soon join up which will enable the insect to nectar. It is quite unusual to see these skippers well off the ground like this, but with the temperature being around 33 degrees centigrade several butterflies were well off the ground to help keep them cool

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Newly emerged Silver-spotted Skipper.

My wild patch in the lawn has really been good this year, especially for Common Blue and Brown Argus. I'm sure I have had several of these butterflies actually emerge in the garden, which is very rewarding. This female Common Blue was one of many that roosted overnight.

Roosting female Common Blue.

In my local meadow I spotted an Adonis Blue. There is very little Horseshoe Vetch in the meadow so an Adonis Blue is quite a scarce sight there. Meanwhile, the Common Blue have been seen there in very high numbers.

Male Adonis Blue.

I did get very lucky with a Green-veined White that I saw nectaring on an overgrown footpath. The butterfly was actually in the shade of a tree, and with sunshine showing just behind the butterfly, the lighting effect was quite interesting.

Green-veined White.

I actually came across the Green-veined while I was looking for Brown Hairstreak. Until last year I would never have wasted my time looking for this species as it simply wasn't there. However, last year I stumbled across 3 different Brown Hairstreak on my patch, and this year numbers have increased much further with 13 seen. Until last year there had only been one record on my patch. It has certainly added a lot of excitement to any late summer butterfly hunt in the area. One day Lisa and I were near High and Over, and I wanted to check out some Hemp Agrimony in the hope that a Brown Hairstreak might be feeding on the flower. Amazingly, from some distance I spotted a female on top of the plant. In trying to get a little closer the butterfly took flight but quickly re-settled on a leaf where I quickly took a couple of shots. As Lisa had decided to travel light that day, she borrowed my camera, but the butterfly took off and vanished before she had the chance to photograph her.

Female Brown Hairstreak.

The day after I had seen my first 3rd brood Wall Brown of the year, I was doing a butterfly survey in Friston Forest when I found a very fresh male 3rd brood Wall Brown that was also nectaring on Hemp Agrimony. Wall Brown are notoriously difficult to photograph, but this one was so busy feeding he didn't fly off as soon as the lens was pointing at him. A very pleasing image showing the fabulous patterning of the under-wing.

Male Wall Brown on Hemp Agrimony.

A very close relative of the Wall Brown is the Speckled Wood. This species is a lot less flighty and is also more common. However, once the season gets going it can be tricky finding one in good condition. However, twice recently I have come across a fresh male Speckled Wood that posed reasonably well.

Male Speckled Woods.

Along the bottom of the valley I was hoping to find some fresh Brown Argus. There were several that showed quite well, but I also got lucky with an extremely fresh Small Copper.

Small Copper.

Brown Argus.

Then, on a very memorable day for Lisa and myself in late August, we were walking along the patch when I saw a very fresh male Holly Blue. As it settled on a bramble leaf the sun went in, and it stayed put as the temperature dropped quickly. After taking a few closed wing shots Lisa was ready to move on, but as I could see that the sun was about to appear I said we should hold on as the butterfly was probably going to give us a rare opportunity to photograph it with open wings as it tried to warm back up again. It was well worth the wait as he did just that when the sun appeared.

Male Holly Blue resting.

Male Holly Blue.

Further on the same walk a magnificent Clouded Yellow performed well for me. We first had it go to roost, similar in a way to the Holly Blue. Once again, the sun came out after a while and it quickly went to feeding mode, taking advantage of the Knapweed flowers.

Clouded Yellow on Knapweed.

However, what made the walk and day so memorable was a very bizarre moment. Having found a fresh female Queen of Spain Fritillary on my Sussex Butterfly tour a couple of weeks earlier, which had made Lisa extremely envious as she had never seen this rare migrant species before. We had just entered a cultivated section of land, and I said to her that she should look out for a Queen of Spain as the area looked really good for them. The main purpose however of going to that area was for Brown Argus. I pointed out an Argus to her and as she finished photographing it an orange butterfly flew past her and settled on the track just in front of her. Amazingly it was a Queen of Spain Fritillary. It was a surreal moment as only a minute before I had mentioned it was possible there. 

It was a bit tatty, but all the same it was her first Queen of Spain. It vanished a couple of times, but eventually it did reappear and give us both a chance to photograph it.

Male Queen of Spain Fritillary.

I tried a couple more times over the following week and eventually three more were seen. All of them were males and still a bit aged. Three more were also seen by others in the area. It seems we had stumbled across a small colony, although no females were seen by anyone.

Male Queen of Spain Fritillary on Alfafa.

We have tried several more times but without seeing any more. They were already a little aged, so its not really surprising that they have now gone. 

My 3rd visit however, did give us both our best sighting, with a slightly better conditioned butterfly. After watching and enjoying it for some time the weather deteriated and we saw it go to roost. This gave us the chance to photograph it showing the silver windows of the underwing. It was fantastic finding our own little colony, on this year that has seen unprecedented numbers of this butterfly migrating over from the continent. Hopefully more will be seen before the butterfly season grinds to a halt!!

The best of the Queen of Spain Fritillaries.

Male Queen of Spain Fritillary at roost.

Sussex Black Darter.

 It's been a few years now since I last saw the tiny Black Darter in Sussex. All my sightings in the county before have been at Ashdown Forest, but after several summers now of the ponds drying up, it seems the species has vanished from there, which is extremely sad.

However, for the past couple of years there has been sightings on heathland at the far western end of Sussex, and after seeing a report from Polly that she had spotted several Black Darter, at a pond actually called The Black Pond, Lisa and I decided to head over there after we had done a recce for a forthcoming butterfly tour I was leading.

At the pond all the Black Darters we saw were males, with around 6 in total which was very pleasing. One particular male was extremely loyal to a perch that he kept coming back to, despite me being quite close with the camera.

Male Black Darter.

Also present were some Small Red Damselflies, Common Emerald Damselflies, Migrant Hawkers, Southern Hawker and Emperor Dragonflies.

A great site and a very enjoyable hour or so spent there.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies.

 Until last year, the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly was almost unheard of in Sussex, with just short lived colonies at Cooden and farmland at Sompting this century.

After seeing my first ever Scarce Blue-tailed in Bulgaria in 2025, I returned home to find that amazingly a small number of colonies had appeared quite close to home. This year, also just after returning from Bulgaria, another new strong colony had been found by Geoff, a local odonata expert.

The colonies from 2025 were also still holding damselflies. However, I was keen to go to the new site at Hailsham as it was the easiest for me to get to. On my first visit I was pleased to meet up with Geoff and Simon, the Sussex odonata recorder. It was also good to see a Red-veined Darter and Southern Migrant Hawker there too. Amazing considering there was hardly any water left in the pond following the long dry spell we have had.

Both Scarce Blue-tailed and the much more common Blue-tailed Damselfly were both present, and both species were seen mating. Strangely, every pair of the commoner Blue-tailed Damselfly both male and female held their wings back along their body, but every pair of the Scarce Blue-tailed the male held their wings slightly apart whilst mating.

Male Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Male Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies mating.

As I was leaving the site, I was chatting to Geoff and we spotted a lovely Painted Lady nectaring on the Verbena. There have been so many Painted Lady's this year and I have hardly taken any photos of them. This one however, was looking pretty good, so a couple of quick shots were taken of it.

Painted Lady feeding on Verbena.

I also had a small trip with Phil checking out a private estate that he does some photography on. A male Southern Migrant Hawker was seen patrolling a dried up pond, and a very attractive Blue-tailed Damselfly was seen. This one had a violet coloured abdomen and was of the colour form violacea.

Male Southern Migrant Hawker.

Female Blue-tailed Damselfly (form violacea).

In the garden at home I also had a visit from a female Southern Migrant Hawker. Most years I seem to get one or two immatures of this species flying around the garden, but it was a surprise getting a mature female.

Female Souther Migrant Hawker.

Scarlet Darters at Silverlake.

 Not long after returning from Bulgaria, Lisa and I decided to head down to Dorset to see the colony of Scarlet Darters that have set up home there. Of course, I had seen plenty of these gorgeous dragonflies in Bulgaria, where they are known as Broad Scarlet.

The Scarlet Darter has in recent years appeared in Britain, but they are still regarded as an extremely rare migrant species here, and this colony at Silverlake is the only known breeding colony as far as I'm aware. I had seen reports over the past couple of years concerning them being seen here, but to be honest I wasn't too worried about going to see them as I had seen them many times abroad. However, Lisa is now on a mission to see all the dragonflies that are found in the UK, although I don't expect the Scarlet Darter is even on the proper UK list yet.

We did however, have another reason for heading down that way, as I have only seen the rare Southern Damselfly once before and that was many years ago, and of course, Lisa had never seen them before. 

Plans were made, and we decided to make a couple of days of it, we booked a one night stay at Poole, which could be cancelled if the weather wasn't suitable. As it was, we nearly cancelled due to it being too good, in other words it was in the middle of one of the many heatwaves. However, we decided to go anyway and if we couldn't find shade we could just make it a quick visit.

I knew that one of my dragonfly contacts had been before, so I asked her where the best spots were likely to be so we didn't have to wander about too much in the heat. It was quite bizarre that she came back to me to say she was also going the next day and would see us there.

On arrival at Silverlake we saw Polly in the distance walking towards where we were having our breakfast picnic. She went onto the main lake, with us following shortly after. As we walked around the lake, we very quickly saw our first Scarlet Darter. It was very apparent that were loads of dragonflies and damselflies around the lake, and it was clear many were still emerging. Excuvia was everywhere on the reeds around the water showing how odonata rich the lake was. The Scarlet Darters were landing on the ground or in bushes close to the bank, not particularly photogenic spots, but later on, as it got really hot, the darters started to land in much better positions.

It was far from just the Scarlet Darters that were present, as there were large numbers of so many other species. As the heat of the day increased we did manage to stand under a large tree by the lake, so we could look out without getting too hot. It was fantastic being able to photograph and observe all the species here. I was particularly pleased with some shots of Black-tailed Skimmer, a species that mostly settles on the ground.

Male Black-tailed Skimmer.

As we were chatting to Polly, she suddenly spotted a young Grass Snake that had popped its head up through the weed. We then watched as it swam along, with it gradually getting a little closer to the lakeside bank. We walked very carefully along with it hoping that it would come closer, which it did, as when it came on land it almost went over my feet. A lovely encounter.

Young Grass Snake.

Heading to the bank.

As well as the Black-tailed Skimmer, there were also a few Keeled Skimmer. Where I see them at Ashdown Forest, they seldom rest on foliage where you can get a decent image, so I was pleased that this male kept landing near where we were.

Male Keeled Skimmer.

There were lots of damselflies around the lake, including one my favourites, the Small Red-eyed Damselfly. It's been a while since I last photographed one, so it was great to get mating pairs and singles showing well. On this mating pair image the excuvia from recently emerged damselflies can be seen to the left of the mating damselflies.

Pair of Small Red-eyed Damselflies.

Male Small Red-eyed Damselfly.

Meanwhile there was a lot of egg laying going on by lots of female Dragonflies and Damselflies.

Female Emperor Dragonfly egg laying.

We had spent a lot of time trying to get close to the Scarlet Darters. They were extremely active, and a pair that seemed to keep joining up to mate were only in the mating wheel for a few seconds each time. However, as the day got much hotter the dragonflies slowed down a little giving us a bit more of a chance. We couldn't believe it when the pair suddenly settled right in front of us and stayed in the mating wheel long enough for us both to get some good shots. The male Scarlet Darter is an incredible colour, and to see it on British soil in good numbers was an amazing experience. During the day we saw over 20 of them.  As the day continued to get hotter still the insect became even easier to photograph. It was also interesting seeing them point their abdomen more and more upward to decrease their exposure to the sun. The biggest problem was the harsh contrasty light from the sunlight, but hopefully some of the photos are not too bad.

Mating Scarlet Darter.

Male Scarlet Darter.

Whilst we were chatting to Polly, we spotted a very large Horsefly around our part of the lake. We kept an eye on it just in case it fancied a bit of human flesh for its lunch. A little while later I spotted it on a reed where it was next to something white and a bit odd looking. We looked closer and realised that it was egg laying. It was an amazing thing to watch as the layers of eggs kept getting larger. I'm not sure what the grey fluffy object is in front of the fly, possibly the skin of a different insect that emerged from the water. We kept watching the horsefly for a few minutes seeing layer upon layer of eggs appear. I found out later it was called a Large Marsh Horsefly, a very apt name for a very large Horsefly!

Large Marsh Horsefly

A couple of hours later, I checked out the progress and saw that the eggs had changed colour, but also saw that a parasitic fly or wasp had already found the eggs and was busy laying its own eggs into the horsefly egg mass.

Large Marsh Horsefly egg mass being parasitised.

With it now being so hot we decided we had better move on, but not before we had seen a Red-veined Darter and Lesser Emperor, both quite rare migrant species. With Lulworth Cove being around 40 minutes away, we decided to head there to see the Lulworth Skipper. We saw a number very quickly, although they were all looking a little bit past their best. It was good to see them though as it's a butterfly that I have only seen a couple of times before, and Lisa only once before.

Female Lulworth Skipper.

Following this we headed for the cove itself so we could chill off with a swim in the sea. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Whilst we were at Silverlake, we hardly saw anyone else, apart from Polly and a friend of hers that joined us. A couple of local guys did stop and chat with us and they told Lisa about a site for the Southern Damselfly in Dorset. We had planned to try and see these in the New Forest on the way back home. However, after a good nights sleep we decided that as we were going to be driving close to the Dorset site we may as well try that too. As it happened, although we saw the damselflies at both sites, the photos from the Dorset site were much better, with better lighting and more confiding damselflies.

Male Southern Damselfly.

I even had a mating pair fly past and land really close. 

Mating Southern Damselflies.

Male Southern Damselfly.

The area where the damselflies were was very small, but we did stay longer than expected, but eventually we moved on and headed to the site that I knew in the New Forest. The car parks near the site were closed to protect ground nesting birds, so we had to use a car park a 30 minute walk away. As my back was still playing up, Lisa volunteered to drop me and the camera gear off and head off to park the car. I headed down into the shade to wait for her, although I was watching and photographing the damselflies by the time she had returned. I found a female Southern Damselfly that was a different colour to the female in the mating pair the previous day.

Female Southern Damselfly.

I didn't improve on the male photos though. However, there were some nice Small Red Damselflies which gave me something else to photograph. Including a mating pair.

Male Small Red Damselfly.

Mating pair of Small Red Damselfly.

A Keeled Skimmer also posed well for me again.

Keeled Skimmer.

It really was a fabulous couple of days away, despite the extreme heat. At the New Forest site a few Silver-studded Blues were also seen and as I waited for Lisa to go and collect the car I saw a Purple Hairstreak fly above a large Oak tree. Lisa had also added two more species to her list.

When Lisa had returned with the car, she told me she had spotted an amazing number of cigarette butts on the side of the road that had obviously been thrown from cars by their drivers. With this hot dry summer it doesn't take much imagination to see how dangerous that could become. As I write this I know there has neen a really bad forest fire in the New Forest. Hopefully not following a cigarette butt thrown from a car!!