Of Marbled White Butterflies and Sundry Others

Reading this Afternoon that Marbled White Butterflies had been seen on the Holly Hill Open Space we turned the Potatoes off (thankfully they were cooked) and toddled off to see if we could catch a glimpse of one or more (Butterflies, not Potatoes!).

And Phew: our luck was in viz.

We could hear a Father and his Child playing together in the Garden of a nearby House.

If it hadn't been for them, we could have been in the Deepest Countryside, with Skipper (including at least one Essex Skipper, our first of the year) Butterflies galore, assumed Meadow Brown and Ringlet Butterflies (difficult to differentiate, being invariably in flight but at least one of each seen), Comma Butterflies and Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies, all present and accounted for.

It was one of those rare and wonderful occasions when we seem to Step out of Time! We were there for about thirty/forty minutes.

And we were very pleased to see our first Hare's-Foot Clover of the year (the site hosts a sizeable population or at least it did last year) viz.

In addition to the Bramble flowers, (a few) Creeping Thistles were flowering and the Lady's Bedstraw will soon be flowering.

We had previously 'clocked' a Marbled White Butterfly (our first in the London Borough of Bexley) on the Holly Hill Open Space during 2015 viz.

and wonder if this is the Grand Mama of the Butterflies there now?

And we spotted another in the Upper College Farm area during 2016 viz.

We are hoping that there might be some Marbled White Butterflies in the Upper College Farm area again this year.