More of the Blues !

The Chalkland Blue,  as its name suggests a chalk grassland speciality and another Butterfly that I seemed to have overlooked. I have been waiting several weeks now for this species to show itself, and finally at Queensdown Warren they appeared, this apparently one of there favoured localities, usally making an appearance in the last weeks of July.

Male Chalkhill Blue

They like the short grasslands of this old rabbit warren site, set on a south facing hillside. I had managed to see the Adonis Blue at this same site earlier this year, this Chalkhill Blue is much the same size although much paler in colour and those distinctive black borders give it a very attractive look. I took so many photographs it's hard to know which to post but here are some of my favourite shots.

Male and female mating pair Chalkhill Blue

worn Male & female Chalkhill Blue

This is my third new species of Butterfly this season, very happy to see this one, not particularly rare, just need to go the right habitat at the right time.

Demoiselles !

  Checked out the River Darent on my way out of Lullingstone country Park, this is usally my best bet for seeing and photographing the Banded Demoiselle, but on this occasion as the Storm clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared so did the Demoiselles.

My second visit was more successful, usally I see many more male Demoiselles than I do females, but this time females were showing well.

I love watching these Damselflys especially the males as they launch themselves off the riverside vegetation to display to the females as they make an appearance.

I never tire of trying to get that perfect image of one of these Demoiselles, not quite there yet.

female Banded Demoiselle

female Banded Demoiselle

male Banded Demoiselle

So far so good , pretty certain of the identification on the Banded Demoiselle.

While walking around the Woodland at Dene Park in Kent as well as the Demoiselles I am familiar with, I caught site of another which I am not so Familiar with  the Beautiful Demoiselle, although I could only snatch a quick record photo I am pretty sure of its identification. the wings had a distinctive brown hue, which caught my eye and the body was a more bottle green in colour which you can just make out from the photograph.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Not sure if this is an immature male or female.

I decided on a visit to Sissinghurst gardens a National trust property was required , as I had heard that this was a regular haunt of the Beautiful Demoiselle.

The lakes and the woodland streams was where I looked, not as easy as I thought it was going to be, lots of Banded Demoiselles there, and the Demoiselles I thought could be the Beautiful Demoiselle were not convincing to me.

 The more I look at the images the more I feel unconvinced.

 If any Odonata enthusiasts out there can put me straight I would appreciate it one way or the other.

Search for the Emperor !

 I still have a few Butterflies on my 'wanted list', the Emperor Butterfly sits well at the top of that list.

So with a few reports and photographs appearing on our local facebook Butterfly site I decided more effort was needed to try and see this elusive Butterfly.
The site in question was a huge wooded area called Dene Park Wood, a site I have never visited before, but I did have a hint of where to begin my search, " the dog poo triangle" ?

Well I arrived at the car park, several paths leading away from this area but fortunately I chose the right footpath and headed up the slight incline, my initial plan was to look for the sunnier aspects and hope to see the fabled Emperor come down from the treetops  to ground level where its particularly fond of "dog poo"

A complete circuit of the woods was made on the circular path I had chosen, a few Butterflies were appearing, the White Admiral, more sightings than I have ever had before.

White Admiral

A few other observers were beginning to turn up now, I enquired about the location of the "dog poo triangle" expecting a quizzical look , but no,as it turn out all this was was a small area of grass at a junction in the footpath where a Dog Waste bin had been placed,  not far from where I was standing, I slowly wandered back to this area, still more observers were already stationed here, but no sign of the Emperor. I did get several sightings of another elusive Butterfly and one still on my wanted list, the Purple Hairstreak, these sightings were mainly flight views and no photographs obtained of that little beauty this time.

I wandered back up the footpath to a very sunny area where  even more people had gathered,  this was the area supposedly where the Emperors master Tree was situated, but still no sign of him coming down from his lofty treetop home.

More Admirals were seen , again Black Admiral and a few Red Admiral.

Still no sign of the Emperor, and its reported optimum time span to see this was fast approaching its end, early morning to lunch time.

A few Silver Washed Fritillaries patrolled up and down the footpath which was very nice for me  as I do not see this Butterfly that often.

Silver Washed Fritillary

So no sign of the Emperor, its general flight time in more ways than one was coming to an end, this Butterfly will remain at the top of my wanted list and I'll try again next year.

I did manage to see two new Odonata species though on this visit which I was very pleased with, the first was the White-Legged Damselfly, both male and females seen.

White-Legged Damselfly female

White-Legged Damselfly male

And a completely unexpected sighting of a male Beautiful Demoiselle, a very brief sighting a little to high in the trees for a decent photograph.

Beautiful Demoiselle

 Butterfly sightings included White Admiral, Red Admiral, Silver Washed Fritillary, Meadow Brown, Purple Hairstreak, Gatekeeper, Small White, Comma, Ringlet and Speckled Wood

Odonata - White-Legged Damselfly, Banded Demoiselle, Beautiful Demoiselle, unidentified Hawker

All  in all, a good day despite not seeing the Emperor Butterfly.