A sudden flush of 'big' butterflies on the buddhlia at the weekend with lots of very fresh looking Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks as well as our first Common Blues for a while. Holly Blues are being attracted to the echinops by the centre and our first Wall Brown of the season was sunning on one of the picnic benches. Phew! We are the last site in London for this seriously declining species so it was a relief to see one!
Small Tort (Basil Thornton)
Small Tort (Dave McGough) You can almost smell the buddhlia!
Peacock (Basil Thornton)
Peacock (Chris Lowe)
Holly Blue (Mark Hart)
(Un) Common Blue (Dave McGough)
Wall Brown by me.... I will confess to have taken this one on Friday at RSPB Cliffe Marshes further out of the Thames where they seem to be doing very well..
15-8-12
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer