Last year when we went to Old Winchester Hill, the weather was very windy, with squally showers. Nevertheless, we saw 12 species of butterflies. Earlier this year, we went again, and the weather was, once again, not very favourable. But despite the heavy cloud cover and low temperature, we still saw 7 species. What would we see on a calm, warm, sunny day? Read on ...
As we walked around, we saw more and more species ...
... and it was really nice to see several small tortoiseshells! When I was a kid, this was such a common butterfly, and we'd only seen one so far this year (and a single one last year).
Of course, the highlight of the day consisted of the clouds of shimmering chalk hill blues. We must have seen hundreds and hundreds; they literally were everywhere!
At some point we passed the 12 species mark, set when we walked around Old Winchester Hill last year. And then we got to 17 species, equalling our best ever butterfly day (in Abbotts Wood). And then the species counter stopped ....
Until, close to the car park, we saw a few small coppers; 18!
Among those 18 no adonis blues and no silver-spotted skippers. We got talking to one butterfly enthusiast, and asked him if he'd seen adonis blues today; the answer was 'no'. Another butterfly enthusiast asked us if we'd seen any silver-spotted skippers. We hadn't, and that made him feel better; it clearly wasn't just him .... He did then ask us if we'd seen the clouded yellows, which he said had been hanging around the bottom of the hill for a week or so. We hadn't been to that particular spot, so hadn't seen them. He then gave us direction as to where to find them .... Success: we saw a clouded yellow, from quite far away, but unmistakeable! 19!
Third time lucky indeed! Here it is, the longest table so far (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+)!
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