Carnage on the Drive

The Indian Summer rolls on, and with it some more butterfly moments. Foulden Common looking great with late summer flowers - devil's bit scabious all over, with restharrow, agrimony and clustered bellflower also still in flower. Plenty of butterflies jinking about: four speckled woods, five small coppers, three small whites, a comma, a red admiral and a late and very tired-looking meadow brown. Back home, comma, brimstone and peacock in the garden. Pics below thanks to Sue Pennell:

 Devil's bit scabious

 Autumn gentian

Clustered bell-flower

Late afternoon, and great drama on the drive. A male sparrowhawk had landed a pigeon, started to feed and refused to budge, even when confronted by me in the car on my way out. I got out and walked within a foot of the bird - eyes glaring, it stayed in situ, wings mantling the partly-plucked/eaten-but-still-just-about-alive wood pigeon. Quite extraordinary. With the pigeon too heavy to carry, the sparrowhawk gave me one last "how very dare you" look and flew off, only to perch on the wall at the end of the drive, scowling at me. I was hopeful that it would return to claim its prize later, but sadly not as the carcass was still there later, untouched...

It's mine, all mine!

All A Flutter

Pathetic, really. No blogging since the second week of May, despite a summer of wildlife adventures! Will certainly be doing something soon on the fab Scottish trip in late June but meanwhile have been enjoying some great butterfly moments. Finally made it last week to Chambers Farm Wood in Lincolnshire for the brown hairstreak.... Made a great start in Clive's garden beforehand with brown argus (unbelievably, my first of the year), common blue and small copper, and arrived at CFW in bright sunshine and 20-plus degrees, so it was all shaping up very well! Speckled woods showing well, plus brimstone, comma and the three whites doing their thing. We wandered down to "the" place - the junction known as Fiveways (despite there only being three paths?) and hung about. I thought I saw something likely flitting over the top of the blackthorn but couldn't be sure. Then, seemingly from nowhere, a brown butterfly showing flashes of orange appeared around our heads and then settled briefly on my hand. There she blows! A stunning female brown hairstreak, which then moved into low blackthorn nearby and sunned herself most obligingly. Just when we thought things couldn't get any better, she started ovipositing! We watched her for about 20 minutes - walking through the foliage, as the textbooks say - before she moved into denser vegetation rather higher up. A second individual blasted past a bit later, and then a very worn purple hairstreak turned up in the same stand as the original female brown. My first-ever brown hairstreak sighting, and something of a red-letter day. Thanks to Clive for the pics!

After a dismal summer for butterflies, the last couple of weeks have seen more on the wing than for months, literally. Three great male common blues on the field at the back of the house the other day, plus plenty of red ads, peacock, small torts and commas. Still haven't seen a hummingbird hawkmoth yet this year... And then this last week, to Hickling, back to Rowland Ward's studio on the edge of the broad. As blissful as ever, with epic sunsets every evening bar one and roasting weather for the first weekend. Birds were generally quiet, but with some notable highlights: a honey buzzard at the NWT reserve, several kingfisher sightings, at least three hobbies - including stonking views of one hawking dragonflies above our boat on Ranworth Broad - and a great white egret at Horsey Mere! But an Olympian gold medal goes to the swallowtail larva we found busy feeding up on milk parsley...