Insects on the North Downs

 After a long hiatus due to lockdown lethargy I thought it was time to resurrect my blog. Today I visited Hutchinsons Bank on the southern edge of Greater London at New Addington. I met my friends John & Janet at Canada Water and we took the Overground to West Croydon and then the tram to New Addington. It was the first time for all of us on a tram and I was impressed with this form of public transport, running on roads and dedicated tracks.

We arrived at 9.30 and walked past some large wooden carvings of Bear, Gorilla, Dolphin and a Vulture which seemed somewhat out of place. A few minutes later we walked across a playing field and through a litter-strewn wood onto the grasslands of the North Downs. It was warm but cloudy so it took a while before we saw our first insects, but they were moths rather than butterflies. First up was a smart Mother Shipton and then a Burnet Companion. Eventually a few Common Blues, Speckled Wood and Small Heaths appeared.

Small Heath

More moths were discovered with Yellow Shell and Heart & Dart, the latter being a common visitor to moth traps but rarely seen during the day. We also found a couple of moths that we couldn’t immediately identify. The moth list continued to climb with Cinnabar also being seen.

 

Heart and Dart

moth sp #1

moth sp #2

Even though there weren't too many insects on show we did manage to locate a few Bee Orchids and a single Pyramidal Orchid.

Bee Orchid

The sun eventually broke through the clouds and this led to multiple sightings of Brimstone and an increase in Common Blues. We were too late in the season for the early flying fritillaries but we did manage to see Small Blue and Grizzled Skipper. Unfortunately the latter flew off before being photographed unlike the Small Blue which showed really well.

 

Small Blue

Walking past the driving range and finding evidence of a few stray hits led us to a nest with a new clutch although there was no sign of anything incubating them.

 

The hedges held a few Blackcaps and Whitethroats as well as an out-of-place Nuthatch but the birding was fairly quiet, hardly unsurprising given the time of year. We found a couple of unidentified beetles, one of which landed on John.

We headed back to the tram stop, after a four hour, three mile walk, disturbing a Silver Y in the overgrown playing field to add to the moth list and then on homeward.