Swallowtail Success.

 With the weather looking a bit tough for butterfly hunting, it came down to a bit of a gamble for the final butterfly needed for Lisa to complete the British list. However, it was a case of having to go now if she was going to complete it this year, as her holiday from work was coming to an end, as well as myself having a few commitments in the following few weeks.

To give us our best chance, we decided to book extra days away, and by leaving early on day one, we would actually have nearly 4 days of possible Swallowtail hunting, with the final day possible if needed, although a trip to Minsmere on the way home was what we really wanted.

Leaving Seaford on the Sunday morning, we were soon well ahead and we decided to call into Weeting Heath on the way up, to hopefully see Stone Curlew. This site is one of the easiest to see these secretive birds, although we really did struggle to see one together!! The first one eventually showed when Lisa had decided to head back to the car to collect something. By the time she was back the bird had vanished. I then went back to the car to get the lunch, only to find when I got back that the bird had showed again. Eventually we both managed to see it together, although it was extremely distant.

Totally different to my first ever visit to this reserve way back in 2005, when Matt and Pen was with me. On that occasion we all saw our first ever Stone Curlews. The photo below was taken on an old compact digital through the spotting scope.

Stone Curlew from 2005.

Following this. well, sort of success, we continued on our journey, arriving in a small village called Freethorpe, which was only 15 minutes or so from Strumpshaw Fen. This was to be our base until the Thursday morning. As the sun was actually shining, we decided to nip over to Strumpshaw, just to get our bearings. It had been a few years since I had last been to the reserve. After a short walk up the lane, past the famous doctor's garden, where sightings of the Swallowtail are quite frequent, we eventually went back to the visitor centre. Although by now it was closed, at least we could check out the sightings board. As we went to the viewpoint by the centre, we had passed a young lady that was busy photographing something in the garden. As she was obviously concentrating, we ignored her, well, that was until a couple more people showed interest in what she was up to. It then became evident that she was busy with a Swallowtail that was nectaring in the small garden plot. Lisa soon started taking many photos of the butterfly that had completed her target. However, after the butterfly eventually flew into the reedbed to roost, I asked her if she was excited about seeing the Swallowtail, and she agreed with me, that it wasn't quite how she was hoping to see it, with someone else having found it, and the fact it was in the garden with heavily scented flowers, it all felt a little artificial. 

However, at least the pressure was off, as she had seen one, so if the rain fell for the rest of the week we could still head home successful.

The following day, we headed back to Strumpshaw. Walking past the garden plot, we expected to see the butterfly back there, but it was nowhere to be seen. After checking into the visitor centre we casually checked it out again, and started chatting to a delightful couple, who were on the same quest. After chatting for some time we started to go our separate ways, with Lisa mentioning how odd it would be if a Swallowtail was feeding on other more natural plants near the water, when a Swallowtail flew up in front of her. This was a bit more like what we had hoped for. We spent some time with this individual, and then another that joined it. How lovely to get 2 Swallowtails performing for us.

Swallowtail on Foxglove.

Swallowtail.

We then retraced our steps from the previous evening, seeing many insects of all kinds, lots of Sedge Warblers that were busy feeding chicks. We also stopped to check on some Garlic Mustard seed-heads, finding a few Orange-tip larvae. We also then had a Swallowtail fly over us way out in the reed-beds.

I was particularly pleased to find some Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn beetles, a species I had only seen in books before.

Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn.

The rest of the day was spent at Strumpshaw. The butterfly that was the most surprising, was the Small Tortoiseshell, a species that has become quite scarce over much of Britain in recent years, but here, especially along the River Yare, they were very numerous. It was like the good old days when the Small Tortoiseshell was a very common species. There must be something about this area, as the last time I saw these sort of numbers of them, it was in the same area back in 2013. Fortunately, the RSPB that own the reserve let the nettles grow in profusion along the riverbank, and it obviously pays off.

Small Tortoiseshell.

We also had views of Bittern and Hobby, masses of hirundines and Swift and many dragonflies. The diversity was much greater than back in Sussex. Obviously insects are doing much better in the less crowded areas of Norfolk.

This was a much more satisfying day, with the Swallowtail sighting being more pleasing. However, we still hoped to see many more before we headed home. 

The following day, we changed the scenery for some heathland, and the possibility of Silver-studded Blue. We headed to Buxton Heath, which was around 50 minutes away. It wasn't long before we were watching large numbers of these lovely blues. The first one was immediately followed by a new emergence, with a male Silver-studded Blue, complete with attendant ants. I have only seen this a few times, and it's always fascinating watching the ants working around the butterfly, totally unaware they are looking after a butterfly. How wonderful and strange nature can be!!

Male Silver-studded Blue with attendant ants.

For the rest of the morning, we enjoyed walking around the heathland watching the butterflies. They were mostly very active, but every now and then we found a fresh individual that would pose for us. We also saw one mating pair, although these were on the track.

Male Silver-studded Blue.

Silver-studded Blue.

Female Silver-studded Blue.

Female Silver-studded Blue.

A rare sight of a male Silver-studded Blue with wings open very wide.

On the way back to Freethorpe, we called into Wheatfen, a lovely reserve virtually opposite Strumpshaw. Just the river between them. Here we saw good numbers of Norfolk Hawker and Scarce Chasers. We also had a back view of an Otter that vanished extremely quickly!!

Norfolk Hawker.

Male Scarce Chaser.

With the Scarce Chaser above, you can see it has clearly mated, as the dark smudges halfway down the abdomen has been made by the female hanging onto him during mating, rubbing off the blue.

The following photo shows this in action, as you can see the legs of the female hanging onto him and rubbing the blue away.

Mating Scarce Chasers.

On our final full day in Norfolk, we headed over to Hickling Broad. This was by far our favourite reserve of the trip. During the day, we saw well into double figure numbers of Swallowtail. We basically saw them all over the reserve, mainly nectaring on Bramble. We even had a pair flying above us presumably fighting over territory at one point.

Battling Swallowtails.

The best moment came right at the end of the day, when we returned to an area we had seen a few Swallowtails earlier. We were walking down an avenue of Bramble, when we lucked out with a very fresh individual. It was feeding well on the Bramble, and as it was only the 2 of us photographing it, there was nobody else to flush it away.  It was a very fitting end to a fabulous day, that had also given us Common Crane, Bittern and so much more.

Swallowtail at Hickling Broad.

It had been a great 4 days in Norfolk and even the weather was much better than had been forecast!!

Now we had a visit to Minsmere on the way back home the following day to look forward to. However, now it was time to celebrate our Swallowtail success with a meal and drink by the Norfolk Broads!!

Kent's Wonderful Heath Fritillaries.

 After our success with the Glanville Fritillary, the next target for Lisa was the Heath Fritillary. This species we decided to try for before too many sightings had been reported, which is not unusual for us as we do like to get the butterflies in excellent condition, and there is also the chance of getting them before the sites get very busy.

It was an early start for the drive of well over 2 hours, and apart from a small diversion, the traffic was lighter than expected. It was also good to see the car park was empty, so we knew we would have the place pretty much to ourselves for a while.

Entering the woodland, we had travelled less than 50 metres, when Lisa came out with those welcome words, 'I've spotted one'. Indeed she had. With the clouds still pretty thick, and it being early, she had found a stunning Heath Fritillary asleep on some Bracken. As we approached the butterfly it was my turn to find another. After that we both found several more of them. We then came across a mass of the larval food-plant, Cow-wheat, and I mentioned in passing to Lisa that I would love to find one of the attractive Heath Fritillary larvae. Almost as soon as I had said it, I spotted one. I've only seen one of these larvae before, so it was a very special moment finding one. However, we then both started to find the larvae all over the woodland, and it became a strange competition to see if we saw more butterflies than larvae!!

Heath Fritillary on Bracken.

Heath Fritillary larva. 

After photographing and enjoying the scene, we walked further into the wood, where I spotted several micro moths flying around a Sweet Chestnut tree stump. By now the sun had started to shine, so the temperature too was increasing. The moths were sunning themselves on the leaves that had sprung up on the suckers around the stump. The micro moth was a very attractive insect, and one that I don't think I've seen before. It was called Dasycera oliviella. We spent several minutes trying to photograph them, although they were very active. However, a few minutes later we came across some more, and these were a bit more approachable. Especially the mating pair that I spotted.

Dasycera oliviella

Mating Dasycera oliviella.

We then proceeded further into the woodland following the main paths. We kept spotting a few butterflies, as well as some more larvae. The competition between the 2 was very close, and as I was responsible for the larvae and Lisa the butterflies, it was nip and tuck all the way, and was also a bit of fun.

At one clearing we came across many butterflies, and most were in excellent condition. As it was a very sunny glade, the butterflies were quite active, although in some of the shadows we found some that were still a bit drowsy. It was in this glade where we both got our best photos from the day. We also spotted a mating pair. I guess with the amount of butterflies that were flying around, it was inevitable that we would come across a pairing. We had also continued to see yet more larvae!!

A Stunning female Heath Fritillary.

Underside of the female Heath Fritillary.

A newly emerged male Heath Fritillary.

Sitting very pretty.

Mating Pair of Heath Fritillaries.

After being in this glade and seeing so many butterflies, I had resigned myself to losing the competition, but on totting up the figures, we reckoned we had seen 35 butterflies and an absolutely amazing 40 larvae. The flight season I would assume from this, would indicate that the butterflies will keep on emerging for a few weeks yet.

Heath Fritillary larva. A very attractive larva which would become a very attractive butterfly.

We had been in the woodland for several hours when we decided we should start the long drive home, and in all that time, we had only seen 3 other people that had been there for the butterflies, and only one we spoke to, the other 2 people were only seen at a distance. Even the dog walkers were thin on the ground. It had been a fabulous day, and Lisa had seen another British butterfly for the 1st time. It was now only the Swallowtail left for her to get to reach her target of seeing every regular breeding species in mainland Britain.

This was also Lisa's first day out with her new camera. She has always had Canon cameras, but as I'm on Nikon, and she sometimes wants to borrow my lenses she finally decided to get a Nikon!! 

The day before our Kent trip, we went up to Park Cameras for her to buy the camera. As we literally went past Ditchling Common, we decided to have a very quick look for the Black Hairstreaks that have been showing over the past few years there. As the day was cool and cloudy, I knew we didn't stand a chance. Once again, there had only been one reported sighting there at this point, which made our chances seem even more slim. After looking at the usual areas where the butterfly is often seen, I suggested having a look at another small area where I have seen them before. Amazingly, one was sitting on the Bracken, seemingly waiting for us. Although not easy to photograph, we both managed a few shots before the butterfly flew off. We then looked at a few other areas before ending up back where we had seen it, and the butterfly had come back down to the Bracken again, giving us much better photographs.

Black Hairstreak.

Black Hairstreak.

This was a totally unexpected bonus, as I was sure we wouldn't see any!!

With Lisa's holidays coming to an end, would we have a window of opportunity and weather, to get to Norfolk to see the Swallowtail, and to complete the list?

The Norfolk Invasion Continues.

 Back on the 6th of June 2023, I spotted a strange dragonfly go past me and land in the foliage under some bushes at High and Over. After photographing it I realised that this was a Norfolk Hawker. At that time, there had only been a few sightings in Sussex of this dragonfly, so this sighting was indeed very exciting.

I then saw another Norfolk Hawker just 3 days later. This was really brilliant and unexpected to get a rare dragonfly so near to home.

The following year, on the 23rd May, I had a similar experience with a Norfolk Hawker, once again at High and Over.  In 2024 I saw many more, including large numbers in Friston Forest, Abbotts Wood and a private woodland that I survey. These dragonflies were presumably maturing up before moving back to their breeding ditches. It seemed that the Norfolk Hawker was becoming established in my part of Sussex extremely quickly.

2025 was even earlier. Once again High and Over produced my first Norfolk Hawker of the year, this time on the 16th May. Again Friston Forest quickly became the place to go to see these, and it was only a couple of weeks later when I had 6 flying around me at the same time, and nearly every ride seemed to hold one or two Norfolk Hawkers

In just those 3 years, this dragonfly has gone from a rare and unexpected sighting to a common May/June species. Some of the photos follow from Friston Forest this year.

Male Norfolk Hawker.

Female Norfolk Hawker.

Norfolk Hawker, also known as the Green-eyed Hawker!!

Male Norfolk Hawker.

Male Norfolk Hawker.

Having just returned from Norfolk, and seeing even larger numbers of this species there, one wonders how common this species will soon be in Sussex.

The Glanville on the Isle of Wight.

 For Lisa, her main target this year is to see the remaining 3 species of butterfly on the British mainland, which she hasn't as yet managed to get.

The most difficult on paper would be the Glanville Fritillary, which is only found naturally on the Isle of Wight. Although there are a few colonies that have been introduced to other sites, it really is much more rewarding seeing them where they are meant to be!!

Of course, the Isle of Wight does throw up a few issues. For a start, you can only get there by an expensive ferry crossing, and you also need to book up the bed and breakfast in advance so it's then a risk with the weather. Originally we were thinking of going for 2 nights, but then we realised that the ferry would be the same cost if we extended the trip further. So, we decided on 3 nights and to catch an early ferry to give us effectively 4 days to see the butterfly and other local wildlife. On our return trip we would head a little further westward to visit Martin Down. Hopefully we'd see the Marsh Fritillary, a species we had both seen several times before, but are always a delight to see.

As the trip came nearer, the forecast was a little mixed, but generally okay with the odd chance of rain and lots of sunny intervals too. The winds however, looked more favourable, being generally quite light. In fact, on the ferry over we could have been on a millpond. It was quite cloudy when we arrived at Fishbourne, which is what I was hoping as the butterflies are much easier to photograph before they warm up and become very lively!! However, when we were only 10 minutes away from Compton Down the clouds lifted and the sun emerged. We were extremely fortunate, as there was still a slight sea mist when we got to the actual site that was keeping the temperature down a little.

It was only a matter of a few minutes before we saw the main target of the trip and Lisa had her first Glanville Fritillary. This was quickly followed by another couple of butterflies. One, a female, was briefly disturbed as we walked by, but with the cool conditions it promptly went back to roost.

Soon after, the temperature increased enough for the butterfly to become a little more active. She was soon on some Thrift. The Glanville Fritillary often use Thrift as a nectar source, but here it was to enable her to spread her wings to warm up. 

Female Glanville Fritillary on Thrift.

Things improved for us as she was next on some tall Red Sorrel. She looked absolutely amazing. As she was still warming up, she stayed long enough on this to photograph her from several angles. So early on our Isle of Wight adventure, we couldn't have hoped for a better start than this.

Female Glanville Fritillary on Red Sorrel.

The morning soon warmed up further and the butterflies became much more active. As we wandered across the site we soon started to see many more Fritillaries, as well as other butterfly and moth species. With so many Glanville Fritillaries, and some that were obviously just emerging, it was only a matter of time before a mating pair was found. During the trip we saw 5 mating pairs, Lisa found 3 of the pairs, one of them found us as they flew past, and I found a pair on the final day. 

The pairing below was the first of the them. 

Mating Glanville Fritillaries.

With this pair, the male was enjoying a bit of nectar from the Thrift.

Eventually, it was time to head to our B&B in Ventnor. It doesn't seem that long ago when Pen and I were here. That trip was also for me to see the Glanville Fritillary in its natural habitat for the first time. That trip then turned out to be our final trip away together, so I did have mixed emotions with some lovely memories from that time.

The B&B that Lisa had found for this trip was superb, with it being walking distance to Wheeler's Bay, an area very well known for the Glanville Fritillary. After relaxing for a while in the garden, we decided to walk to Wheeler's Bay and try to time it just before the butterflies were going to go to roost. As we walked along the path under the cliffs, with the sea to our right, we were struggling to find any butterflies. However, eventually we came to a large patch of Red Valerian and suddenly I saw a Fritillary fly up. It then became clear that several butterflies were feeding and preparing to roost on the valerian plants. Although not a totally natural plant, it did make for a nice image, particularly with the light shining through the wings.

Glanville Fritillary on Red Valerian.

Soon the butterflies all went to roost, as the sun went behind the clifftops. Most of the butterflies were roosting on the Valerian, but some were settled on grasses and Plantains.

Glanville Fritillary on grass seed-head.

Following this we headed to the Spyglass Inn, at the end of the promenade for a relaxing dinner. What a brilliant first day on the Isle of Wight.

Day 2 started in sunshine and we were soon heading back to Compton Down. The terrain was certainly challenging at times, but we are used to climbing up and down the South Downs, so we coped pretty well. In the pools at the bottom of the cliffs there were lots of Tadpoles. Dragonflies were also seen around the pools, with a Broad-bodied Chaser egg laying and newly emerged Emperor Dragonflies hawking around. We also saw our first Large Skippers of the year during the trip. 

Male Large Skipper.

Another surprise was a Bee Orchid. This was near the beach, rather than on the hilltops where we would have expected it more.

Bee Orchid.

With it being warmer right from the start of the day, it was much more challenging getting photos of the Fritillaries because they were so active. However, we were still seeing the odd newly emerged butterflies, and we were hoping for more mating pairs. 

The only decent image that I achieved on day 2 of a Glanville was one that was warming up after a brief cloudy moment on some Bramble.

Glanville Fritillary on Bramble.

On our return to Ventnor, we tried a couple of the Chines to see if we could find any more colonies of the butterfly. The first one proved unsuccessful, but when we got to Whale Chine we found very good numbers of the butterfly. Most of them were now very active, but it was great wandering around watching them. We also saw a couple Mother Shipton moths and a few Common Blue. The good thing about Whale Chine was that it was much nearer to where we were staying, so we decided we would call back again before we left the island.

The following day, we decided on a change of scenery, with a trip to Parkhurst Forest near the centre of the island. It was much quieter than we thought it would be with a few dog walkers that didn't go far from the car park. The big attraction here is the Red Squirrel, and we were fortunate enough to see a couple of these delightful creatures. We also had our first Meadow Brown of the year, as well as a lovely Common Toad that wandered across the track in front of us. Another surprise was when I heard a Nightjar churring in the wood. Unfortunately, it didn't continue churring. Just before we got back to the carpark, a Firecrest was seen. It was clear it had a nest nearby, as it was carrying food for its young.

Common Toad.

Following Parkhurst, we headed back to Whale Chine. Once again the Fritillaries were quite active, so only a couple of shots were taken. I did quite like this one though, of one peeping around the Thrift.

Glanville Fritillary on Thrift.

In the evening, we ended up again at Wheeler's Bay. This time there appeared to be less Glanville's but as they went to roost one was found on the larval food-plant of  Plantain.

Glanville Fritillary preparing to go to roost.

Eventually closing up to roost on Plantain.

Our final day on the Isle of Wight started with torrential rain and with the weather forecast showing very little improvement. After breakfast, as we were packing, the rain continued to pour down, but as we left the hotel the rain did start to ease a little. We headed to Whale Chine on the off chance of finding some butterflies at roost. This was actually much easier than we had been expecting, as many of the butterflies were roosting on some of the higher plants. They were certainly braving the elements and were looking pretty wet. On the plus side, until the weather improved, they were not going to fly off anywhere!!

Roosting Glanville Fritillaries.

From where we were, we could see that further along the coast the skies were looking slightly brighter. So after a lovely, successful wet session, we once again headed for Compton, hoping our final hours on the island would give us one last flourish.

Although it was still raining when we arrived at Compton, the clouds had certainly lifted, and with it the temperature had also increased. After finding very little, certainly the Glanville's here were not roosting high up, we were beginning to think that we had had the best of things. Lisa then disturbed a lovely female Glanville, and as the temperature increased yet further, a Large Skipper and a few damselflies were spotted. The Glanville did briefly fly and land on more Thrift. This gave me one of my favourite underwing shots.

Glanville Fritillary on Thrift.

By this time, the weather still wasn't looking very good, so we decided that we would soon head back to the ferry terminal at Fishbourne. Suddenly, my eye was caught by a shape in the tall grass. I quickly lifted the binoculars and focused on what turned out to be a wonderful mating pair. Despite them being in the long grass, they had crawled up to a height where we could see and photograph them without stray blades of grass getting in the way. The female, which was on top, even opened her wings for a short time to give a wonderful view of her lovely top wings.

Mating Pair of Glanville Fritillaries.

Open wing of the female Glanville Fritillary.

My final shot of the mating Glanville Fritillaries.

After enjoying watching these beautiful, special butterflies, it was great being able to walk away from them as they continued mating. 

The trip back to Fishbourne took a little longer than expected, but we did just arrive in time to catch an earlier ferry. We had wanted to get this so we could reach the pub in Martin in time for dinner. I really appreciated this, as the pub served up one of the best curries I've ever had.

The next morning, we travelled the short journey to Martin Down. It's one of my favourite nature reserves for seeing the Marsh Fritillary. As it happened, we had to work really hard to find any of these. With the warm spring, the butterflies had been out much earlier than usual, and as a result, were now nearing the very end of their flight season. We only saw 5 of them and they were generally very worn, so I didn't photograph any of them. Though, it was good to see so many Small Eggar larval webs. There were also plenty of Small Blue, Grizzled Skipper and a few Adonis Blue, which included a mating pair, of which the female was an aberrant krodeli form.

Adonis Blue pair. (female aberrant krodeli).

There were also some great birds around, with plenty of Corn Bunting, Red Kites and Yellowhammers.

Yellowhammer calling.

On our local hills we get lots of Six-spot Burnet moths, but the common one at Martin Down was the five-spot Burnet.

Five-spot Burnet.

We also saw several Forester moths. The only one I photographed turned out to be a Scarce Forester, but I didn't look closely at the others. The one I photographed was enjoying nectaring on Mignonette.

Scarce Forester on Mignonette.

Eventually, we decided we should head for home. We were both pretty tired by now, having spent many days out in the field looking for butterflies and moths. 

Lisa had managed to see one of the remaining 3 butterflies she needed to see. Next target would be the Heath Fritillary. At least there won't be a ferry needed then!!