WHERE ARE YOU NAPOLEON?

Wednesday mornining gave a brief window to visit Lydden again and the first chalk hill blues,just two,were freshly emerged.

CHALK HILL BLUE

MEADOW BROWN

RINGLET

HEDGE BROWN or GATEKEEPER

MARBLED WHITE

COMMA

Two more chalk hill blues were seen on the cliffs in t`afternoon.

CHB LANGDON CLIFFS.

Thursday went in search of the Purple Emperor in Dene Park had a brief sighting of two butterflies in the top of the master oak at 9am,but the similarity to white admiral at distance meant I could not be certain and as there were no further signs of them on high and a dozen or more white admirals in the wood lower down....we`ll never know.
Eventually found a silver washed fritillary

SILVER WASHED FRITILLARY
A nice southern hawker came along and a brown hawker came and had a good look at me,dont think it had a camera though.

SOUTHERN HAWKER
After a frustrating morning went off to Lullingstone hoping for a better result with the Dark Green Fritillaries,it was soon evident that there were quite a few flying around so it was just a matter of patience to get a few shots off.

DARK GREEN  FRITILLARY

D G FRIT female

The green on the underwing gives the name, although it doesn`t look very dark to me.

this one is a little darker

They like the knapweed and scabious flowers.

With all the doom and gloom about the weather killing off our butterflies,some are doing better than others and certainly at Lydden they seem to be holding up quite well,so time will tell I guess. We have not had the deluges suffered by many areas which is a great advantage.
Last but not least the Costa Romantica called in at Dover on tuesday and left without a scratch .

COSTA ROMANTICA.