Magdalen Hill Down

April and May have been very cold (and wet, on occasion), but with the bank holiday approaching, the weather seems to have turned. Plan for us for the bank holiday was to go butterflying one day, dragonflying one day, and then have one day in reserve to either butterfly or dragonfly, depending on days 1 and 2. 

For the Saturday, we decided to go butterflying, and go back to Magdalen Hill Down for this. Last year, in late August, we saw eight species. What could we see this much earlier in the season?

Weather was pleasantly warm, with hazy sunshine and some wind (much less than last year!). Flowers were certainly present, although everything is late due to the cold spring.

We saw a total of 12 species, two of which (grizzled skipper and small blue) were new to both of us, whereas green hairstreak was new to Irma (I'd seen them in my youth many many years ago in the Netherlands, so it was great to see them again, after maybe 40 years or so). Even though we saw more species than last time, the number of individuals was much lower. Only brimstones and small heaths were common.

So here's our list for today (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

And, finally, we noticed this sign on one of the access gates to the reserve. Fingers crossed we will see dukes here one day ...

There certainly was an abundance of cowslips!