New Skipper !

Well a new Skipper for me !

With the weather not so good at the moment it's time to catch up and record some of my recent sightings.

I set myself a few targets this year, in the world of Butterflies I had set my sights on trying to see the Adonis Blue, Chalkhill Blue, Heath Fritillary and the Silver Spotted skipper, all of which I have been fortunate to observe in the field this year.

Queensdown Warren in Kent was the place to head for to see the Silver Spotted Skipper, and as the optimum time to see these approached, end of July through to August I made my first visit to the site.

A Warm sunny day with plenty of Butterflies to view, my first  couple of Silver Spotted Skippers were seen, but with some difficulty ,very fast darting flight low across the grasses. not to many to be seen probably as they were at the early stages of there flight  period. Just managed one photograph to record this first sighting.

My second visit  a few weeks later 13th August, and what a difference  a few weeks make, the Skippers seemed to be everywhere enjoying the sunshine giving good views of all their features. still flying  low and very fast but I seemed to be able to keep my eye on them this time , and once they settled there was plenty of opportunity to get some photographs.

 I have now managed to see several Skippers now, just one sighting of a Dingy Skipper, several Essex Skippers, Small Skipper and Large Skipper next year I hope to try and catch up with the Chequered Skipper.

My wanted list for nest year stands like this at the moment :-
Chequered Skipper, Purple Emperor Butterfly, Long Tailed Blue which seems to be making a stand here in Kent at the moment, maybe the Glanville Fritillary which resides very close to the Kent border, a few more sightings of the various Hairstreaks would also be nice.

What I have learnt this year is that if I want to see new species previously unseen, I need to make the effort and search for them in their favoured haunts, we will see what  next season brings.