Dancers End; Crong Meadow; Pitstone Hill - May 2002 |
| I have recently re-kindled my interest in butterflies (I spend many a
childhood day rearing caterpillars and racing around meadows like a madman with a net!)
and have begun to explore local sights (I live in Chesham in Buckinghamshire) in the hope
of seeing species that I have never seen before. Although I am not yet a member of
butterfly Conservation (the application pack seems to be taking an age to get to me), I
thought that you might be interested in a number of butterfly sightings that I had on
Sunday 12th May. I basically did a bit of a tour of local sights (including some in Herts) and took a count of the species encountered whilst walking along a rough transect of each site. Dancer's End 7 Duke of Burgundy. Mainly males I think as they seemed to be doing the 'staking out of territory' thing. I may have seen more but could only be certain of 7 individuals 4 of which were fighting at one end of the site whilst three fighting at the other end! Did a relatively thorough search for eggs on suitable food plants but couldn't find any! This is incidently the first time I've ever seen this species). 12 Dingy Skipper. Very active and many were very fresh (another new species on me!). 1 Grizzled Skipper. Moving very fast but did sit still for long enough to be identified. 4 Orange Tip. all males 5 Brimstone Including one very confused male who was becoming very amorous with a male Large White! 1 Peacock. Crong Meadow. (just a bit further back up the lane from Dancer's End at the other end of the wood, which adjoins both the Dancer's End and the Crong Meadow). 2 Green Veined White. 1 Orange Tip 1 Comma. A rather battle scarred individual! Pitstone Hill (Hill side which adjoins the Herts Wildlife Trust's Aldbury Nowers site but is just - I think- in Buckinghamshire). After a fruitless trip to Ivinghoe Beacon, which coincided with a couple of cloudy hours, I nipped over to Pitstone Hill and walked along the scarp slope towards Aldbury Nowers Wood. 1 Brimstone 1 Large White. 2 Green Hairstreak. Disturbed one which alighted again after a short, drowsy flight (it was about 6:30pm by this time). Spotted another, flying briskly along the slope above the chalk pit. (This was again, another new species for me). I hope this info was of use to you. Please let me know if you don't want me to send this info to you. Regards Allen Beechey |