14-19/5/10: Barnehurst miscellany - from Jay to Pignut

14/5: Jay seen from train window in cutting just west of Barnehurst station. An infrequent species in the area. Brooms in flower towards Bexleyheath. Very dark-flowered Lilac before Falconwood (most 'escapes' are pale-flowered forms).

15/5: Holly Blue butterfly in the garden, Wood Mouse in the compost heap. The native Broom deliberately planted in the garden is flowering well.

18/5: Holly Blue in the garden again. An adult Common Frog after dark.

19/5: Brown Rat on edge of old Pitch and Putt course by Bursted Wood. Several Swedish Whitebeam saplings (from street tree seed, no doubt) in the wood. Thyme-leaved Speedwell and a couple of the umbellifer Pignut (where the grass hasn't been cut around Daffodils) in the grassy area between Erith Rd and the hospital turn-off, Bursted Wood.

Not so common Blues in Barnehurst

The two Blues found in Barnehurst are the Holly Blue and Common Blue. Neither is abundant.

Holly Blues tend to appear one at a time, and generally fly higher than Common Blues, sometimes re-tracing particular 'circuits' of shrubbery.

Holly Blue on Camellia in my Barnehurst garden, 19th May

The Common Blue is a bit more gregarious. Numbers on an allotment site in Barnehurst - never high - appear to have been very poor last year, though I wasn't around so much.

On the day of the mating pictured below, three were seen at once on the most favourable plot, flying about randomly at about 4' off the ground. The favoured nectaring plant was Geranium pyrenaicum (white-flowered form).

Common Blues mating in a Barnehurst allotment, 22nd May

A few days later I had this female in my garden, pictured at rest on the purple-leaved cultivar of culinary Sage.

Female Common Blue in my back garden, 28th May

If Common Blue caterpillars do develop in this area, Black Medick is likely to be the main foodplant.