Thursley Common & Hankley Common ~ 19 June, 20 June & 26 June

2 visits to new areas of Thursley Common away from the popular Moat Car Park. Effort was concentrated towards the southern end, where mosaic-style management seems to be a lot more prominent and consequently the area is a lot more biodiverse.

Dartford Warbler, Woodlark, Tree Pipit & Redstart are all in good numbers, the latter appearing to have had a particularly good year.

Silver-studded Blues are thinly distributed with the exception of one dense population on the western edge. A ~50m transect yielded 48. Numbers of Bombus lucorum across the site are very impressive along with smaller numbers of hypnorum & terrestris.

Bombus lucorum (M)

Silver-studded Blue

Ammophila wasps were abundant and consequently one lone Mottled Bee-fly (Thyridanthrax fenestratus) was found on my latter visit.

Mottled Bee-fly ~ Thyridanthrax fenestratus

A trip to Hankley Common Golf Course on the 20th June was notable for 1 Mottled Bee-fly but most impressively for Textrix denticulata, seemingly a first for Surrey and a very rare sighting in the SE of England.