Thursley Common
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A few weeks ago I read a report on the BBC News website about how Silver-studded Blue butterflies are making a good but surprising comeback at Thursley Common, Surrey. In 2006 there was a devastating fire that burned for several days here and it’s such a horrible thought that a lot of the wildlife that made their homes in the area such as a colony of Sand Lizards and many ground nesting birds will have been wiped out at the time. The fire went through the area where the Silver-studded Blues lived too and as it happened in July 2006 it couldn’t have been at a worse time for much of the wildlife. A lot of work has had to be done since to restore the area and from what I could see nature is doing what it does best and the heather and other plants are starting to re-grow. Large areas of the boardwalks that take you across the site have been replaced so it wasn’t difficult to follow a path.
As always I picked the brains of a local dog walker in the car park just after I arrived to see if he knew about the butterflies and where I might find them. He had read the article too but didn’t know where I would see them but recommended I took the Heath Trail to see just a small part of the reserve that would certainly give me an insight into the place. The recommended footpath very soon starts across boardwalks which were obviously new and it must have been a lot of work to replace them after the fire damage. It was here the dog walker told me would be the best place for dragonflies although he told me there are nowhere near as many as there were before the fire.
The weather was going to be one of those things that proved to be really annoying during the day. A lot of the time it threatened to rain and occasionally a few spots fell: enough to put my camera away in my bag and put my waterproof on, although it never came to much. The worst thing though was the wind. It was highly unlikely that any butterfly would be visible as in conditions such as this they hunker down for protection. Dragonflies seem to hate the wind too: they get the wind up their tails and never settle. I could see how in this open landscape a fire could so easily spread fanned by the wind which is exactly what happened two years ago.
 The board walk continued past these partially burnt trees The boardwalks were very entertaining places. If you walked very gently and quietly dozens of small lizards would scatter into the grass by the side of the paths although it was interesting that the vast majority of lizards I saw were on the old boardwalk. I guess that’s because there was more cover for them to hide amongst at the sides. I sat quietly on the boardwalks and waited for the lizards to come back out of hiding. When I was down there I could understand why the lizards liked being there so much: even when it was overcast the boards were still very warm. One or two of them allowed me to get very close with my macro lens which maybe doesn’t really give sense of their scale: the youngsters were no bigger than a couple of inches. As expected the vast majority of the dragonflies were not still for a second and I suspect a lot of them were hiding. I did however see a new species to me, a Black Darter (Sympetrum danae) and watched several pairs ovipositing. I also saw more Keeled Skimmers (Orthetrum coerulescens) than I have ever seen before. If I had a pound for every one I saw that day I might just be able to afford that long lens I’ve seen!  A Keeled skimmer I really enjoyed my walk across the open heathland with many striking views across the obviously burnt areas and trees with the recovering heather below. If I’ve any criticism it is that there wasn’t one place to sit down on the whole walk to eat my lunch. It wasn’t really a problem I went off the bridleway and sat by the side taking in the expansive views and attaching my wide angle lens to the camera. I’m really glad I decided to pack that lens today. It was towards the end of the day I met with a very knowledgeable local who visited the site several times a week and I asked him about the Silver-studded Blues. He told me I was most likely to find them in another part of the reserve but it was already quite late in the day when I found this out so knew I wouldn’t have the time to get there on this visit. He did point out a Wasp Spider hiding in the long grass though. Wasp Spiders are a fairly recent introduction to this country, and are thought to have come from continental Europe. I managed to get a few pictures of the spider but they certainly aren’t the best as the grass the female had built its web in was constantly moving in the strong wind. It does show the male spider hiding by the edge of the web. On reading about them the males take their chances of mating with the females just after they have shed their skins. That way the mouthparts are soft and they are less likely to end up being eaten. Must be fun being a male spider. So in the end I never did find any of the tiny blue butterflies I had gone looking for but given the weather that was hardly surprising and if I had found them they probably would have not looked very fresh so if I was to plan a visit there again next year I would probably say early July was the time to go. As for the dragonflies I think any time between May and September and you would be seeing plenty. I may not have seen what I had come looking for but I wasn’t disappointed as I’d spent a wonderful day in the kind of environment I’m just not used to seeing and it’s yet another place I would gladly return to.
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