Darters and Dartfords

I am lucky to have Chobham Common National Nature Reserve pretty much on my doorstep and perhaps a bit daft that I don’t visit this rich, heathland wonderland more often. The end of July isn’t what you would call peak birding time but this morning was very pleasant indeed. I left the car to the sound of a calling chiffchaff, wandered down the path to glimpse whitethroats and a little further along the main pathway, came across a family of willow warbler. Continuing the warbler theme, Chobham is a classic Dartford warbler site and I saw perhaps five today, including family party. Further off into the distance, two common buzzard circled over the woodland showing the classic upturned wings and closer to home, a kestrel glided by and even briefly settled in a nearby tree. Again, as you would expect from a heathland site, stonechat were present, in various states of sometimes rather ropey looking plumage and calling in classic ‘stone against stone’ fashion. Difficult to get to close to of course, this one is presented in its environment.

Stonechat

The main butterfly in evidence, as so often just now, was gatekeeper but also ringlet, large white, red admiral, both large and small skipper and grayling, one of which landed on my jeans and camera lens several times; they really are rather beautiful close up!

Grayling

A flash of blue inevitably caught my eye and this silver studded blue, somewhat passed its best to be fair, was the result. Now, I originally labelled this a common blue (as you will see from the comment below). After a bit of chat with my mate Dave, it turns out to be a silver studded. I made an assumption really and got it wrong (although worn butterflies are difficult) but it is worth repeating Dave's comments verbatim (I should say I also have a bad photograph of the underwings which are crucial)

• the black margins on the upperside of the forewing and hindwing is the patten of ssb whether it is faded or not.
• on the underside of the forewing, the 5th black spot is bigger than the rest in line - typical of ssb
• common blue should be fresh now as second broods are out, ssb are finishing.
• the question mark on the hindwing of ssb is more distinct, actually the underside black spots on both wings of ssb always look more busy than common
• even when faded, male common blue has white dashes on the horizontal black dash, ssb doesn’t
• the dash on ssb is more vibrant than on common
• also the last line of dots on the hindwing nearest the edge are more round on ssb, not so on common more like thick wedges

So now you know! Such things are great learning actually.

Silver Studded Blue

Dragons are a difficult group to get your head round. The next photo is of a classic looking common darter.

Common Darter

The following image is also a common darter, in this case an old female, described by a friend as looking like a ripening banana, which it does!

This next fellow is a black darter and a new one for me, sitting next to a shallow pool on the heath, a pool that also produced the male common darter above, a brown hawker (I think) and a broad bodied chaser.

Black Darter

Chobham can be, indeed is a bit of a draw for dog walkers. My route this morning was on the north side and started at the Monument car park, just a little quieter for those, like me, who like to wander these places in solitude, which makes me a bit anti-social; oh well!