Large Tortoiseshell Hunt.

 I was rather late to the party this year for the Large Tortoiseshell. I had searched several times in the local wood where I have seen them before, but with no luck at all, although I had heard that 2 people had struck lucky there this year.

As the weather had been so warm in the early spring, I had possibly been looking at the wrong time, as the mornings were not warm enough for them to be active that early in the season, and I had probably returned home by the time they had started flying.

I then heard from James, that there was a woodland in Kent where several had been sighted. To be honest, I wasn't really that keen to go all the way over to Kent to see a species that I had seen 4 times before, and all of the 4 I had found myself. It sort of felt that my record of finding all my sightings would have gone if I went to see someone else's findings. However, when I mentioned the Large Tortoiseshell to David, he was keen to go, so I felt I may as well join him. We knew that by now they would be very tatty, but any Large Tortoiseshell is a good sighting!!

We went over in David's car, and it was just as we were arriving at the wood that I realised I had not put any walking shoes or boots in the car. All I had on were soft slip on things that were far from ideal for walking through a possibly muddy woodland. Fortunately, due to the lack of rain, it wasn't such a problem after all!!

After much searching, we worked out where the best spot would be to see the butterflies. We did however, need to wait until the day warmed up a bit more. In the meantime we were entertained by many Orange Underwing and Light Orange Underwing that kept landing on the track in front of us. These are both species I know very well, as each year I try to get a decent image of them, and normally fail. However, it had only been the previous week, that I managed to get my best ever shot of the Light Orange Underwing, perched unusually off the ground, while I was on a Large Tortoiseshell search in the local wood.

Light Orange Underwing.

After searching other parts of the woodland, and after lunch, we returned to the area that looked promising, and straight away I spotted a Large Tortoiseshell flying past us. I saw roughly where it had landed, and after re-finding it we had several minutes with this rare butterfly. Hardly a beauty anymore, but when fresh, this would have been a wonderful sight.

Large Tortoiseshell looking a tad tired.

It was really good to see, and was after all, a brand new species for David. After spending some time with it we started to head back to the car. On the way we saw another Large Tortoiseshell, this one was possibly even more tatty.

Another tatty Large Tortoiseshell.

2 days later, Lisa and I visited Rye Harbour to look for birds. We had a great time there despite not finding the Spotted Redshank, but we did see several Avocets, including 3 mating pairs.

We had been watching one pair feeding together, when I realised that the female had lowered her bill and was standing still, inviting the male to mate with her. He carried on preening, each side of her, when he suddenly jumped onto her back and proceeded to mate with her.

Female Avocet on the right, inviting the male to mate.

Male Avocet looking interested.

Mating Avocets.

As they separate they touch bills.

Avocet fly-by.

Sandwich Tern fly-by.

When we finished at Rye Harbour, we still had plenty of time, so with the Large Tortoiseshell site being only 20 minutes, or so away, we decided to go there so Lisa could see them. By now it was mid afternoon, and when we arrived at the site there was one seen almost straight away.

This one was the same butterfly as one of those seen 2 days earlier. This time though it was often landing on a tree trunk. This made me wish even more that it was a lot fresher. After spending some time with the butterfly, we moved on and saw a 2nd butterfly. This one was a different butterfly to the other one I had seen 2 days earlier, so over the 2 visits I saw 3 different individuals.

Large Tortoiseshell on a tree trunk.