A short visit to the Isle of Wight to see familybut i had a little time for birding and entomology. One of my main targets in the short amount of time I had was Glanville Fritillary; a species I have not seen for many years. I visited Compton Chine where, in very windy and rather cool conditions, I eventually found a couple of rather lethargic individuals and then at Brook Down a slightly more lively individual in more sheltered conditions.
A visit to Parkhill Inclosure for Pearl-bordered Fritillary. I parked at Standing Hat car park and wandered north. The weather was mainly cloudy and there was very little on the wing but a sunny spell at around 16:30 produced enough warmth for insect activity to increase and was sufficient for me to record two Pearl-bordered. Also, Broad-bordered Chaser which was an addition to my Hampshire odonata list for the year.
My second outing in my quest to see all of the regularly breeding butterflies in Hampshire took me to Martin Down on 17th May primarily for Marsh Fritillary which is on the wing from mid-May to mid-June. Its very important to target these species with short flight periods at the peak of their season to avoid missing them - although I guess thats an obvious statement, even with so few species to see in Hampshire, some planning is required. Other targets here were Adonis Blue, Green Hairstreak and Small Blue all of which were seen.
I have set myself the task of seeing all of Hampshire's regular breeding butterflies and dragonflies/damselflies this year its not an especially challenging task given the small number of species involved but I thought it would be an interesting little project for the season. These are the regularly breeding butterfly species with 42 species present.
