In my previous blog post I wrote about taking my husband to a couple of nature reserves. The first one was local to us and the second was Queendown Warren near Sittingbourne in Kent. As the name suggests, it has a large rabbit warren and dates back to medieval times. A large number of chalk grassland butterflies can be found and on my first visit, I was blown away by the numbers. A count by experts a few weeks later revealed nearly 3,500 individuals, although they didn’t cover the entire site.
My biggest fear was the fact that it spreads across nearly 200 acres and is very hilly in parts. In fact, if you approach it the right way, you can cover most of the length on level ground. (Always watch out for rabbit holes though!)
Another problem seemed to be parking, or rather a lack of it. I expected to find a decent-sized lay-by, with a sign at the entrance. In fact, I drove up and down the tiny lanes for some time before eventually parking in a tiny space by a junction. Asking some locals later, I was told that was indeed one of the parking spaces. There were a couple more at the very top of the hill on a different road and two or three tucked in at the point of another junction. Thankfully they don’t get many visitors.
On my first outing, it was still a bit early for the second emergence of the rare adonis blue butterfly. They are supposed to be larger and more colourful, but on my second visit, I was still worried they would be hard to tell apart from the common blues. The tell-tale signs are the fine black lines on the wings that extend into the white fringe, giving a chequered appearance. I needn’t have worried. My husband spotted the first one. It was a brilliant blue and better still, turned out to be very friendly, as can be seen from the image featured above. He was only too happy to pose on my finger while I took his portrait.
Once we knew what to look for, we found them all over the reserve and I was able to take my time with the photographs. Here is a selection of the best from the day.
Only two weeks later, I returned to the reserve with a friend, who had not yet seen the species. We did spot a few, but to my eyes, they were slightly faded and some had chunks out of their wings. They clearly didn’t stay pristine for very long and I made a mental note to watch the butterfly groups closely next year and to go as soon as they have been sighted. As we left, the thought crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be visiting any more butterfly reserves until the spring. It made me sad, but at least I have plenty of images in my collection now and a quick count reveals I have photographed 26 species of butterfly that breeds in Great Britain, out of a total of 59. That’s not bad going!
sidilbradipo1
31 Aug 2018Impressive photos 💕
I do adore these tiny blue guys!
What a magnificent reserve 😊
Thanks for sharing.
Ciao
Sid
Zooey
31 Aug 2018I love the blue butterflies too! 🙂
sidilbradipo1
31 Aug 2018Why I do love the Kent countryside 😍
And the Castle of Leeds, of course!
I can perfectly image us sitting there having a pic-nic 😁
The video is wonderful, thanks for sharing!
Ciao
Sid
Zooey
31 Aug 2018It sounds as though you’ve been to Leeds Castle. It’s a 15 minute drive from there to Queendown Warren. We should have more picnics I think. They are good for the soul 🙂
sidilbradipo1
31 Aug 2018The Castle of Leeds is absolutely my favourite Castle 😍😍😍
I visited it years ago, when I was studying English in Cambridge 😁
Have a marvellous Saturday!
Sid
Zooey
2 Sep 2018Ah! So that explains why your English is perfect. I will think of you the next time we go to “Castle of Leeds” 🙂
sidilbradipo1
2 Sep 2018Please, take lots of photos 😀
Have a relaxing Sunday night!
Sid
Zooey
3 Sep 2018I will do! I just checked and the last time we were there was in 2003. Time for another visit I think! 🙂
sidilbradipo1
3 Sep 2018Great idea 😁😋
Happy Monday!
Sid