Following success last year in finding a brown argus butterfly, Malcolm Watling visited Dane Valley Woods back in July to try and re-spot the rare beauty. Whilst he did not find the brown argus, he recorded the first ever orchid found at the woodlands, a wonderful surprise for us! Read what he found below:
On the 2nd and 3rd September, I visited the woods again to see which butterflies would still be around. There were lots of Small Whites, several Large Whites, two each of Common Blue and Small Copper, and one each of Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Comma and Brown Argus. The Brown Argus was in exactly the same place as my observation of one last year. This is encouraging, because it probably shows that they are breeding here, and they are known not to wander far from their colonies. The female of the Common Blue is brown and can look very like a Brown Argus, but can be distinguished by differences in the spots on the underside, especially an extra spot on the forewing. You can see that some of the butterflies are quite worn and ragged after a busy summer dashing about amongst the grass.
Malcolm also sent photos along with captions, to help identify certain butterfly species, check them out below!
