Darland banks visits - Photo heavy!

[Ukwildlifeo]

On my 2 latest visits to darland banks, last friday (with ian) and Mon (on my own) I saw loads:

Friday:

My first ever slowworm


Loads of cinnebar adults


a cinnebar moth caterpiller


This pregnant female Common Lizard - about 30seconds after Ian said "we wont se any reptiles today, its to windy and late in the day" - she must have heard him lol


This odd Grasshopper


A common? blue


A labyrinth spider -used the old twitching grass trick again, either ive got better or this species is really gullable!


And it was so good I went back monday when i need to kill time before I could get the train where I saw:

this Common Lizard under a log pile me and Ian missed on monday! and looking at the photo there was a toad I didnt see, well not that time...


But then I came back to the log pile after walking round and turned a few more over and found this fella, who is probaly the same one as the photo above


A Brown Argus


some chalk hill blues - we saw these friday too, but they were more cooperative and numerous monday


Also - this ill annoy Ian - I found a solitary Marbled White, after finding none friday. And yet 3 weeks befor they were everywhere


This site was really good for butterflies with 3 blue species that I could see and atleast 3 whites. Also there was lots of mating cinnebars, they were suprisingly hard to see but I saw 3. 2 of which where on this grass with black ooze on

looking at it is it the chryslis/pupa of the moth adn its just recently emerged?

[James M]

Aren't your Cinnabars Six-spot Burnets?

Oh and great photos

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by James M

Aren't your Cinnabars Six-spot Burnets?

Oh and great photos

woops! yes your right. Dunno why I wrote cinnabar - i think the caterpillers a cinnebar?

[aeshna5]

Yes the first blue is a male Common Blue + the grasshopper is a Field Grasshopper.

Looks like you had an excellent day- some great sightings, thanks for sharing with the photos.

[James M]

Yeah I think it is a cinnabar caterpillar, I wish I could see half of those you saw only one of which (cinnabar caterpillar) I have seen.

[rlchew]

Yes .... the moth is a Six-spot Burnet and the caterpillar is a Cinnabar .... I only know because I saw several of each at the weekend and went looking for IDs from my photos .

Richard

[GuyF]

Great shots, looks like you had a couple of very nice days out. Chalkhill Blues are one of my favourite butterflies, I was watching a few yesterday, your shot of the male really shows the colours nicely.
I think that your Brown Argus is actually a female blue because of the lack of orange spots on the forewing, I'd say female Chalkhill because of the black stripes on the white margin.
Guy

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by GuyF

I think that your Brown Argus is actually a female blue because of the lack of orange spots on the forewing, I'd say female Chalkhill because of the black stripes on the white margin.
Guy

I have to say i wasnt 100% on that ID, so thanks for the correction. I thought it might be a female of 1 of the blues, but then saw the Brown Argus and the dark brown spot in the middle of the forewing and rather rashly thought it was an old Brown Argus with the orange spots mostly worn off! lol

[Dan Salter]

Excellent work fella....i was very close to meeting you up there monday but i was on here until stupid o clocl when i saw your message and the 9am part put me off.

I was about to clarify your male common and correct your Brown Argus to fermale chalkhill but others already have....and no worries on the I.D the blues are a tricky bunch specially the brown females.

[Cazzie]

Looks like you had just as good a time as I had at Malham on Sunday! Great pics and didn't you find alot too! The Marbled White is a great shot - I've not personally seen one of those before.

So just to clarify - where exactly is Darland Banks.....Essex somewhere?

[Dan Salter]

Its in upper "Gillingham" in the medway towns but sometimes gets lumped under Chatham or Luton...

If your not local...then its not far from Chatham Dockyard/ Brompton Barracks...Its a Kent Wildlife Trust reserve South facing Chalk Dowland situated on the edge of an Urban Area and is a very interesting SSSI site.

[Cazzie]

Thanks for the info Dan! Sadly a bit out of my way I think though...

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

Its in upper "Gillingham" in the medway towns but sometimes gets lumped under Chatham or Luton...

If your not local...then its not far from Chatham Dockyard/ Brompton Barracks...Its a Kent Wildlife Trust reserve South facing Chalk Dowland situated on the edge of an Urban Area and is a very interesting SSSI site.

It's quite an unusual site.A strip of beautiful chalk downland wedged between towns. Very steep with views across houses.If you went through the Medway towns as a visitor, you probably wouldn't even know it was there. As Dan says, an important site-SSSI status with some excellent species. My only negative against the place is it's always been windy when I've been there, so it's been hard to get any shots of the numerous butterflies or flowers, as they are always on the move.
Bet the wind stops when I go home!

Going to get there on a nice hot sunny day and give it another go methinks.

[Dan Salter]

I was lucky jules as it was within feet of my front door so i could leg it out there if there was no wind...but i do hear what your saying.

By the way...its such a good site last year we had "Alan Titmarsh" up there filming a piece about urban nature reserves but i dont think it has been on tv yet.

a point to note...another KWT SSSI chalk downland and the flagship of the Adonis Reintroduction scheme "Queen Down Warren" is only a few miles away as the crow flies...This WAS on tv a week or two back on NATURES CALENDER looking at all the rare orchids on the reserve....and my friend and KWT reserves warden Ali was on it