Dukes in the Sunshine!

With the promise of sun for the afternoon I made my way over to Denge Wood on the outskirts of Canterbury to hopefully see the rare Kent butterfly, the Duke of Burgundy. This is the only site in Kent where they can be seen and on arriving at midday, the sun started to shine through. Walking along the path to Bonsai Bank I saw a Green veined White and not long after I arrived at the Duke site. It was quickly warming up and I made my way to an area where they had been seen a few days earlier and straight away in front of me was the first of 8+ Duke of Burgundy taking in the sun. These are smart little butterflies and thankfully when they do fly off after intruders they often return to the same patch of ground. With this in mind I spent the next couple of hours taking a few hundred shots from various angles with some pleasing efforts.

Duke of Burgundy

Also in this area were 5+ Dingy Skipper which I shall post some shots of another day. I could have stayed all day but I thought with a few hours left I would call in somewhere else on the way back. As I walked back to the car I noted 3 Orange Tip, 2 Peacock, 2 Large White, 2 Speckled Wood, 1 Green veined White, 1 Holly Blue and surprisingly 2 Large Red Damselfly in the middle of the wood! On the way back I called in at East Blean wood in the hope that a Heath Fritillary would be flying. I had a brief look with no joy but did see and photograph my first Broad bodied Chaser of the year.

Broad bodied Chaser

I then moved on to Reculver and parked at Shuart where I wanted to see if I could see and photograph a Hairy Dragonfly. I spent 45 miniutes in a sunny area where I had seen them last week and thankfully 1 Hairy Dragonfly could be seen darting around low over the stinging nettles. After a while it eventually gave me the chance I had waited for and I was able to grab a few shots before it was off hunting again.

Hairy Dragonfly

 As I walked back to the car I saw a few Blue tailed Damselfly which ended a very pleasant few hours out with the camera photographing some brilliant butterflies and Dragonflies. I wonder what the weekend will bring?

Duke of Burgundy