The Grayling is a large butterfly, which is a master at camouflage and you normally only know it is present when it suddenly takes off and flies away to find another resting spot. In Kent, where I do most of my wildlife watching, the Grayling has become extinct as a breeding species and so last week I made my way to Brookwood, to visit Pirbright Common in the hope of catching up with this enigmatic butterfly. My path to Pirbright Common took me from the station at Brookwood, through Brookwood Cemetery to enter the common.
There were some Brown hawker dragonflies and commoner butterflies such as Small Heath, Small White, Meadow Brown, Holly Blue and Gatekeeper. I had an idea of the area to search from previous records but was fortunate to run into one of the local recorders who was able to direct me to an area where he had just seen 4 Grayling. I made my way to a patch of low stone vegetation and there were at least 3 Grayling present, but would they stay still to be photographed? It was as though they had an in-built sensor which told them to fly as soon as I pointed the camera at them. Eventually, I gave up and moved on. As I was leaving the area I was also fortunate to get a brief view of a Silver-Studded Blue, but it too was gone before I could get a photograph.
During my conversation with the local recorder, he had also told me of an area within the cemetery where he had recently seen Grayling, so I made my way there and sure enough, there were at least 4 Grayling in a scrubby area. One settled on a stone and finally, I was able to get some photos.
A successful trip with 10 species of Butterfly seen.
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