Butterfly Islands

Better luck this morning on the track leading to West High Down.Three Chalk-hill Blue butterflies were seen on the short grass slopes off the track. Given a while and numbers will increase rapidly. Other species encountered today on these slopes were Painted Lady,Marbled White,Small Copper,Common Blue,and what looks like a egg laying Brown Argus.<...

A long overdue visit to West High Down situated between  the Needles and Tennyson Down was made today. I was hoping to see the first Chalkhill Blues of the year but alas none were to be seen. However another butterfly that flies this Down is the Dark Green Fritillary and it was not long before I witnessed  a male hurriedly moving low dow...

A return visit today to Newtown discovered a good number of summer butterflies on the wing despite rather cloudy but bright conditions.The hot weather continues and towards the end of my walk the sun appeared to encourage more butterflies to take flight. The species on show in particular are Marbled White,Ringlet, a small number of Gatekeeper,Pain...

The weather today was mainly cloudy but bright with the occasional sunny spell and warm temperatures.A brief visit to Walters Copse,Newtown at lunchtime yielded numerous Meadow Brown and a small number of Painted Lady.The latter all too common at present. In addition to 3 Marbled White,the same number of White Admiral were obsreved flitting around...