Malling Down and Steyning

Small Heath

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A cloudy sky was not a promising start to the day, but I decided to take a chance and visited Malling Down near Lewes. I saw two Silver-spotted Skippers near the chalk pits, but they were skittish and provided no photo opportunities. When it started raining I headed home and called into Steyning Rifle Range where I met five other butterfly hunters who reported some sightings of Brown Hairstreaks on high but nothing on the ground. I saw two adders, including a juvenile, and two slow-worms under a mat.

Malling Down:

Meadow Brown

Thistle

Agriphila selasella moth

Chalk pit

Common Toadflax Linaria vulgaris

Common Toadflax in foreground

White Campion Silene alba

mating Meadow Browns

Marjoram Origanum vulgare

Steyning Rifle Range:

courtship of Green-veined Whites

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Hoverfly Chrysotoxum bicinctum

Roman snail

7 spot ladybird

view of Steyning to east

2 slow-worms