Neil James Bew Wildlife and Wild Places: Another Bookham Wander

After a break in Spain (beach, swimming pool, cerveza, no birds to speak of) it was back to more familiar territory and a few hours exploring Bookham Common. At this time of year, Bookham is more about butterflies than birds but the feathered flyers are still very much in evidence of course. I remember in my youth (some time back clearly!) being told and indeed reading that birdsong was largely done by the first of week of June. No-one told the birds I guess with blackcap in particular in good voice, a few chiffs and chaffs split the air plus the odd trill on the end of wren song. As so often, the birdlife came up with a surprise in the shape of a small group of marsh tits, not astonishingly rare perhaps but still quite hard to find.

I spent an interesting twenty minutes talking to the Bookham warden, a man clearly committed to Bookham albeit there is I think, much more that he would like to do than he is able to do.

I came looking for three species of butterfly in particular and whilst I managed to see all three, only two were caught on camera. The Silver Washed Fritillary (love some of these butterfly names) is not uncommon in the right habitat but they are fantastic to see, swooping around sun lit glades, seemingly coming to rest very infrequently. One decided to take up residence inside one of Bookhams open bird hides (the head on shot), spending quite a lot of time exploring a large bird ID chart (it seemed rather fond of the kingfisher picture and why not).

Silver Washed Fritillary

White Admiral were present in small numbers and very illusive. There is nonetheless a certain simple elegance about their markings which I really like.

White Admiral

The last of the three was purple emperor and one look at the Lewington guide will tell you what a fabulous butterfly this is. I caught one brief glimpse high up in the oak canopy (a not untypical view I understand) but did get some help from the warden for a future visit so I will be back.

One surprise for me was purple hairstreak, a delightful, small butterfly with the classic streak underwing marking. The photograph isn’t great but it is the only one I managed and the butterfly is worth it.

Dragons were represented with emporerors, the males with sky blue thorax and bright green abdomens. This however, is I believe an immature male Southern Hawker and if so, a new dragon for me! Any differing opinions would of course be welcome. Any confirming opinions would be even more welcome!