Kitt’s grave is amazing for butterflies!

This morning Adam, the volunteers and I headed over to Kitt’s Grave, another trust reserve on the north west edge of Hampshire next to Martin Down. The plan was a nice walk in the sunshine seeing as much wildlife as we can possibly could, to say thank you to the volunteers for all their hard graft. Kitt’s Grave is a class site, a mixture of ancient woodland, scrub and chalk grassland. We spent a couple of hours in Kitt’s Grave then headed across the road to Martin Down National Nature Reserve, were we had lunch and another briefer wander.

Here is a quick summary of some of the more interesting species we saw:

Butterflies:

Common blue

Chalkhill blue

Small blue

Holly blue

Brown argus

Small skipper

Essex skipper

Silver washed fritillary

Silver washed fritillary form valezina (1 individual Kitt’s grave)

Dark green fritillary

White admiral (1 Kitt’s grave)

Peacock

Small tortoiseshell

Large white

Small white

Marbled white

Brimstone

Meadow brown

Ringlet

Gatekeeper

Clouded yellow (1 Kitt’s grave)

Moths:

Scarlet tiger moth

Silver y moth

6 spot burnet moth

Orthoptera:

Meadow grasshopper

Field grasshopper

Roesel’s bush cricket

Birds:

Yellowhammer (Martin Down)

Corn bunting (Martin Down)

Linnets

Goldfinch

Swallow

Whitethroat

Flowers:

Wild parnsnip

Wild carrot

Majoram

Wild basil

Wild thyme

Lady’s bedstraw

Greater knapweed

Common knapweed

Bird’s foot trefoil

Yellow rattle

Hemp agrimony

Agrimony

Harebell

Scabious sp

Yellow toadflax

Creeping thistle

Spear thistle

Marsh thistle

Musk thistle

Old man’s beard (clematis)

Oxeye daisy

Highlights for me were seeing my first clouded yellow butterfly of the year, the white admiral, and the pale form of silver washed fritially valezina. I didn’t do very well on the photography front as it was really incredibly hot and the butterflies were very active but here is a few shots: