After my trip to Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo I returned to the UK itching to head out for my final regularly breeding butterfly in Hampshire. And so On 8th August I headed to Stockbridge Down and walked from the eastern car park up slope to the rampart and then across the open downland. It was not until I was in the open downland where there was a high abundance of flowering Scabious that I encountered my first Silver-spotted Skipper eventually seeing around four individuals.
Silver-spotted Skipper
Silver-spotted Skipper
Silver-spotted Skipper
It was a fantastic few owns on the reserve with an abundance of butterflies on the wing with Chalkhill Blue, Adonis Blue, Dingy Skipper, Clouded Yellow, Small Heath, Small Tortoiseshell and Small Copper being the highlights.
Chalkhill Blue
Chalkhill Blue
Chalkhill Blue
Chalkhill Blue
Chalkhill Blue
Adonis Blue
Small Tortoiseshell - Only the second that I have seen in Hampshire this year
Small Tortoiseshell
Green-veined White
Speckled Wood
Meadow Brown
Small Copper
Clouded Yellow
Dingy Skipper
Treblebar
Kite-tailed Robberfly Tolmerus atricapillus
Waisted Beegrabber Physocephala rufipes a Conopid fly
The Tachinid fly Nowickia ferox
Hornet Robberfly Asilus crabroniformis with Field Grasshopper prey
Hornet Robberfly
Silver-spotted Skipper was the last of the regularly breeding butterfly for me to see in Hampshire this year and so at the end of the season my list looks like this:
