Noar Hill is a Hampshire & Isle of White Wildlife Trust reserve where I previously observed Duke of Burgundy in  the 2011 and 2013 seasons. The hilltop (SU744319), just south of the village of Selborne, is characterised by former medieval chalk workings that created a patchwork of sheltered hollows and rich chalk scrub habitat (pictured below) ideal for chalk downland butterflies. This year the Dukes, one of Britain’s most vulnerable species, began flying on 15 April and should continue until late May.

Arriving on site mid-morning I searched those areas with which I was familiar but could find no Dukes. Then I was fortunate to meet Butterfly Conservation’s Hants and IoW co-ordinator Ashley Whitlock who directed me to the new (for myself) location of his one sighting so far on this day. When I reached that spot Ashley and a companion arrived behind me and re-found the butterfly, a male (pictured below).

Duke of Burgundy (male)

Duke of Burgundy are very territorial, so if an observer stays in the place where one is first seen that butterfly will keep coming back. Eventually a second male appeared, challenging the first one. It was now midday and warm sunshine prevailed. I moved on to a chalk pit where I had seen and photographed Dukes two years ago, finding two butterflies in exactly the same spot as then. I believe these were a male and female, the latter being the slightly larger and paler of the genders. Once again these insects kept returning to the same place.

In all I saw five Duke of Burgundy at this site and was told of one other. According to the British butterfly bible Thomas and Lewington this is a typical day’s haul for a downland colony, since adults emerge progressively from mid-April to late May and their average life span is five to seven days.

Female Duke of Burgundy (above) and on Cowslip food plant (below)

In the afternoon I moved on another 14 miles or so to Butser Hill NNR (SU716203), the highest point on the chalk ridge of the South Downs. From the reserve car park I walked to the top end of Rake Bottom, a deep dry valley on the western flank of the hill that is a hotspot for Grizzled Skipper. I would guess this spectacular natural feature dwarves the fabled Devil’s Punchbowl on the Oxfordshire Downs by a third as much again in depth (pictured below).

Rake Bottom, Butser Hill NNR

I met a couple here who had walked up the valley from the lower end. They confirmed that the “Grizzles” were the most numerous species present and before long I began to see them as well. Being so tiny they are quite difficult to relocate after they jump out of the way in typical Skipper fashion. But I do not recall seeing so many of this butterfly in one location before. The afternoon was drawing on and I had bought just an hour’s parking time, so resolving to return to this site at some time in the future to see what else might be here, I left.

Grizzled Skipper

I have had an email from Robin Gailly, the Belgian birder who guided me to observing the long-staying Wallcreeper in Dinant on 22nd March. The bird last roosted in that town on 7th April and is now assumed to have departed. I am interested to learn that it was first found (on 30th December 2014) due to a group of local birders prospecting suitable sites for the species that they thought occurred more in south-east Belgium than was previously assumed. Robin tells me a second Wallcreeper wintered in a quarry near Liège.

I like this picture of the bird on the Palais de Justice wall just before disappearing into the dark cavity above it’s head for the night.

Wallcreeper (in failing light)
© Robin Gailly

Today was the second time in 2015 that a particular north American wader passed through Hampshire County Council’s reserve at Titchfield Haven on The Solent. One Sunday back in January I had missed Greater Yellowlegs through not seeing the news in time to get down there. By the following day the bird, a lifer had gone. This time I picked up the news within an hour of it appearing on RBA and so got straight into my car and went.

My day had begun locally at Farmoor Reservoir where I met up with Tezzer and Mark. Some site passage specialities are passing through there at the moment but not while we were present. So we relocated to Linkey Down on the Chiltern escarpment where this spring’s first reported Ring Ouzel for that location had been seen earlier in the day. There we met several other Oxonbirders and thanks to the most sharp-eyed amongst the group I saw this species in our county for a fourth consecutive year *. I bowed out at that point, fortunately so given events a little further afield.

* I have since self-found Ring Ouzel at another Oxfordshire location

When I arrived on site just before 4pm, the Greater Yellowlegs was sleeping to one side of Titchfield Haven’s Meon Shore Hide that was bulging with birders. Fairly soon the bird began to move around, being a lot smaller and greyer in appearance than the Black-tailed Godwits with which it was associating. The GY had a quick and delicate action and the diagnostic, slightly upturned bill was noticeable. But it was too distant to obtain clear pictures, this one (below) being as good as things got for me today.

Greater Yellowlegs

Various other birds seemed to object to the visitor’s presence however, until the “Yank” fled exclaiming onto the River Meon nearer the coastal road. But it didn’t stay there for long before going inland again. When I got back to the Meon Shore Hide the Yellowlegs was not on view, though it had apparently dropped back in before flying off for good (see here).

The scrapes at Titchfield Haven (pictured above) hold large numbers of breeding Black-headed and some Mediterranean Gull. This reserve was the first place, in March 2010 where I saw the latter species. Having picked out a nice group of them on the northern scrape, once the star visitor had been lost I walked round to the Pumfrett Hide to observe the gulls. These pictures (below) show how Med Gulls stand out amongst their Black-headed counterparts, with jet black masks, bright red beaks and legs, white wing tips and a different character. They are to my mind very striking and attractive birds.

Mediterranean (centre) and Black-headed Gulls

I looked in at the Meon Shore Hide again after 5:30pm but there had been no further sign of the Greater Yellowlegs and the crowd of visiting birders had largely dispersed. I was pleased to have had a second bite at this cherry and to gain another north American addition to my life list, and so headed home mindful of this day’s narrow window of opportunity.