Thursday 23 April 2009

Thursday 23rd April

A sunny St George's day with flags adorning more buildings and cars than I've ever noticed before. The cycle in to work from Barming to East Malling didn't turn up anything out of the ordinary.
Ross called at lunchtime and we took a trip to Holly Hill, near Birling in the hope of getting a couple of Skipper species. Immediately after leaving the car we were rewarded with Dingy Skipper, quickly followed by Grizzled Skipper. Our two target species within 5 minutes - if only it was always like this! A Green Hairstreak fluttered into view, settling and posed beautifully for within feet of the Grizzled Skipper. More Skippers were seen over the next 30 minutes and although it was difficult to eliminate repeat sightings of the same individuals I reckon we had 8+ Dingy Skipper, 4+ Grizzled Skipper, 1x Green Hairstreak, 2x Brimstone and 1 x Peacock. 2x Common Lizards and 6+ Slow Worms all added to a fantastic lunch hour!

4 comments:

Steve said...

Ahh, Holly Hill. One of my favourite places. Good sightings adam.

Greenie said...

Adam ,
As you say a fantastic lunch hour .
Always difficult with Skippers being so mobile to get a true count . We were definately both singing from the same sheet today , even managed to post the species in the same order .

Simon said...

Brilliant lunch hour Adam, and some super photos too! I'm leading a bird walk at Holy Hill Saturday morning, so I'll have to keep an eye out for these species.

Kingsdowner said...

Lovely - but I'm as green as a hairstreak with envy about the green hairstreak!