A walk on the North Downs (warning - contains snakes and spiders!)

I took the train to Shoreham (the one near Sevenoaks in Kent, not the one by the seaside near Brighton) to have a downland walk looking for butterflies and whatnot. I visited a small nature reserve, a steep bank of downland with typical chalk vegetation, and found most of my target butterflies and a few other nice things. It was a gorgeous morning, and I was home before 11am :)

Small Heath butterfly, very active and difficult to approach. Never rests with wings open, but this is its best side anyway, the upperside is quite plain. I saw half a dozen of them.

Common Blue. Found several that were still in bed before the sun arrived on the slopes, which made them easy to get close to but it was a bit dark and I had to bring down the shutter speed, with a knock-on effect on depth of field. Later on they became insanely active.

A bit of serious colour - somewhat ragged Peacock (the only one I saw today, and it didn't hang around).

Small Blue. A bit of a local speciality, tiny and, at first glance, a bit dull, but there are all kinds of tones in those dark wings. Only found a couple of these, it is pretty much the start of the first brood's flight season).

Two little springtime skippers. First Grizzled, second Dingy. Both of these species were very numerous, though they are coming to the end of their flight period so there were a lot of scruffy individuals about.

If you're still reading, I assume you're cool about seeing snake and spider photos, or perhaps shouting at the screen 'enough butterflies, let's see some wildlife with fangs'. First of all, a lovely crab spider lurking in an Ox-eye Daisy, waiting to give a hoverfly a great big hug:

And two gorgeous Adders, male then female :) They were in shady spots so same bad light and depth of field problem as with the Common Blue above, oh well.

Excellent series there Aiki. We're not seeing all that many butterfly species up north yet , just a few individuals , mostly whites.

You must have made a really early start if you were back home by 11 am. I'll bet it was gorgeous up there.

Lovely photos of the butterflies despite the tricky light conditions. I especially like the two skippers. I don't think I've ever see either of those.

The white crab spider is an interesting little fellow. Does it choose white flowers deliberately to act as camouflage or is it one of those clever critters that can change colour to suit its environs?

I also didn't realise that male and female adders had different colouring. Is there a significant size difference too?

Sorry for so many questions.

Lovely, I will probably never get to see the skippers or small blue unless I ever happen to be in the UK at the right time so I really like seeing your pics of them.  I even coped with the spider :) The snakes are good people too.

Caroline in Jersey

Great photos as ever, aiki - wish I could have been there too! Love the Adder shots!

Aiki

What a fabulous set of photographs. Id love to try some adder shots ill have to have a look around  Norfolk as apparently the place is full of them.

My fave without a doubt tho is the ox-eye daisy and crab spider thats a gem of a picture

Did you use flash for that one?

Andrew

Thanks for the comments, guys :)

TeeJay

You must have made a really early start if you were back home by 11 am. I'll bet it was gorgeous up there.

Lovely photos of the butterflies despite the tricky light conditions. I especially like the two skippers. I don't think I've ever see either of those.

The white crab spider is an interesting little fellow. Does it choose white flowers deliberately to act as camouflage or is it one of those clever critters that can change colour to suit its environs?

I also didn't realise that male and female adders had different colouring. Is there a significant size difference too?

Sorry for so many questions.

I caught the 5.40am train :) though it turned out there was no sun on the slope til about 7am!

I think my crab spider is Misumena vatia. It can change colour to match what it's sitting on, though it takes several days to do it and AFAIK can only be yellow or white. The change from yellow to white is quicker than the other way around, because of the metabolic processes involved. I found a yellow one on a marigold a couple of years ago:

Female Adders are bigger than males when fully grown - males go up to about 60cm while females can be 75cm. Both of these two were less than 60cm though.

andrewa

Aiki

What a fabulous set of photographs. Id love to try some adder shots ill have to have a look around  Norfolk as apparently the place is full of them.

My fave without a doubt tho is the ox-eye daisy and crab spider thats a gem of a picture

Did you use flash for that one?

Andrew

Thanks, Andrew :) I didn't use flash, I tend not to (not that I'm anti-flash, it just doesn't occur to me!).

Beautiful set of shots! Lovely to see the adders and to get both M+F as I only saw a male in Cornwall!

Enjoyed your pictures very much, particularly the spider on the daisy. I think I'm too busy learning about birds to pay too much attention to plants and insects myself, but its a real pleasure to see what others have spotted. Never seen an Adder, but hope to see some in the Forest as the sun starts to come out more regularly.

Wow what a brilliant set of photos. That was an early start for you aiki. Don't think that I've seen many of those butterflies, but I should have, having lived on the south coast of Kent for quite a wee while, hangs head in shame.

The white spider is 'brilliant' on the oxeye daisy esp with the swirling yellow symetrey of its centre.

Adders are such amazing creatures although I don't seek them out as normally have youngsters with me. We do get to see them most summers on the hills nearby without really looking for them. In one of the woods we visit they put corrugated iron sheets down, great for a careful wee peek.

Hi Aiki

Great report and photos, what a variety of Butterflies certainly more than I have seen so far this year, the Spider is something else I have never knowingly seen. I've also not seen any Adders yet either this year (I'm doing well for not seeing things)  so I guess Pulbourough Brooks need a visit soon to remedy that, or visit the reserve you went to, is there easy parking there?

Agree with everyone else, great report with fantastic photos,love that last one.

Never even seen a Grass Snake nevermind an Adder..must get out more.

Thanks everyone, it was a fab morning :)

Shane

Hi Aiki

Great report and photos, what a variety of Butterflies certainly more than I have seen so far this year, the Spider is something else I have never knowingly seen. I've also not seen any Adders yet either this year (I'm doing well for not seeing things)  so I guess Pulbourough Brooks need a visit soon to remedy that, or visit the reserve you went to, is there easy parking there?

There's only a layby, big enough for a couple of cars I'd say. Mind you, on the two occasions I've been there I've only met one other person.

Thanks Aiki, I see its not to far to travel either, one for next week with the boys maybe.