The Lyons Share

On the way to Malling Down via Wheatsheaf Gardens today I spotted this Poplar Hawk-moth hanging on  to the side of the curb for dear life. It's huge, nearly as big as that van! Anyway, with thanks to Oli, I got the quadrats completed so I can finally move on to another site, I'm so much slower at the moment due to the bad back. Other highlights today included a load of these Striped Snails, small versions of the banded snails but these are mostly a chalk-grassland/coastal/dune species that lack the thick lip of the banded snail but with a tight umbilicus. They are reported to be an introduction, possibly going back as far as the Roman period. This one was in my quadrat.

Finally, on the way back I spotted another marked Silver-spotted Skipper but even with a net I was too slow to catch this one. Then we found this Southern Hawker and yet another Hummingbird Hawk-moth. Next stop, Levin Down.