Thursday, 27 March 2025

Trip away from SS15 – Benfleet and Hadleigh Downs (Hadleigh Country Park), Essex – 27th March 2025

After my unsuccessful trip to Benfleet and Hadleigh Downs to see and photograph Adders on 19th March 2025, I tried again this morning.

Benfleet and Hadleigh Downs covers a large area so I again deliberately focused on a location where I had seen Adders in previous years. My slow, quiet and repeated walk in that area finally resulted in a brief sighting of a female Adder which unfortunately was very obscured although I did manage to get a single photo of the head!

With regard to birds, my visit to Benfleet and Hadleigh Downs again provided sightings of the usual expected woodland/parkland birds but also more notably Blackcap (now arrived on site with 5 singing males including 1 seen), Chiffchaff (at least 15 singing males heard including 7 seen), Sparrowhawk (1 female)

I also recorded the following butterfly speciesComma (at least 3), Peacock (at least 3) and Brimstone (at least 3). In addition, I saw several other fast-flying butterflies which were probably Peacocks and/or Red Admirals plus 2 small white butterflies which I think were female Orange Tips rather than Small Whites!
















Photo: female Adder
















Photo: male Chiffchaff
















Photo: typical Adder habitat at Benfleet and Hadleigh Downs
















Photo: typical Adder habitat at Benfleet and Hadleigh Downs
















Photo: typical Adder habitat at Benfleet and Hadleigh Downs

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