Love your description of the female rejecting the advances of a male SSB, Wurzel. And those pics of DG Frits are amazing. Two on the same flower head - now you are just showing-off!

Nice close-ups of Silver-spotted skips and Adonis, Dave. I am still itching to see my first 2nd brood Adonis this year. No luck as yet.

Nice to see the Adonis is out round your way, Mark. They have yet to appear near me.

Trevor - Pics of Walls and Painted Ladies on headstones - now that is different!

Mike - love the shot of two Gavarnie Blues. Also the Glandon Blue.

I have to ask - did any of them wing-roll?

I had no idea a Wych Elm could be so devastated in such a short time, Paul. Thanks for the before and after pictures. It saddened me more than I can explain.

Bugboy - After some initial success this year with Brown Hairstreaks I am finding them difficult now too. But that Teasel shot of yours is very fine - there is always something at this time of year to point the camera at!

Old Winchester Hill - 7th Aug 2018 Parts of this reserve are now looking very parched indeed. This is a patch of gorse! Old Winch during the drought of 2018.JPG I was here a few days ago when I saw 3 Clouded Yellow and 1 Silver-spotted Skipper. Today my fortunes mysteriously reversed with sightings ...

Thanks Andrew - Its been a good year for me so far with a lot of quite lucky moments.

Today at Old Winchester Hill, full sun - around 24 degrees, no breeze. A female Chalkhill Blue landed next to me, opened her wings by 45 degrees and immediately started to wing roll really fast. After 30 seconds or so she stopped. I got even closer and she started up again, very exaggerated and fast...

David - Lots of summer insects appear to be struggling. I met a guy who mentioned he had not seen many grasshoppers or ladybirds this year and come to think of it, neither have I. Some - but not heaps. However on a more positive note, others on this forum are still seeing Brostreaks and females egg-...

In the last few days I have visited Old Winchester Hill and Noar Hill. There were many Common Blues at both but I only saw mini versions at Old Winch - the ones there were the size of Small Blues. Of the 50 or so Common Blue I saw at Noar Hill in one day, they were all of a more conventional size. N...

Or it could be the Sepia Bolete. The Sepia cracks on top but the Rooting has a yellow stipe or stem. Both have yellow pores that bruise blue but the sepia bruises a darker blue. This one was starting to crack on top and bruised dark greenish blue but it had a yellow stipe. I'll I have to flip a coin...

Noar Hill - 6th Aug 2018 I cannot with all honesty say I saw any Brostreaks here today. There were a couple of false alarms due to Vaporer moths and even Holly Blues. I saw three Brostreaks yesterday but they were all far flung from each other. I think I am witnessing the end of the Brostreak flight...

Wurzel - Oxenbourne is a beautiful location but its a shame that the main road runs along one side at the base of the hill. It can get a bit noisy in places.

Oxenbourne Down - 5th Aug 2018 Oxenbourne Down (2).JPG Another chalkhill reserve not far from me – at this time of year the speciality is Silver-spotted Skipper. I came here early hoping they would be a little more lethargic and stay still for close-up pics. One was quite obliging but didn't really ...

Thanks again Wurzel.
I don't know the answer to your question. Most of the ones I have seen are male and as yet, mostly fresh ones.

Noar Hill - 4th Aug 2018 The Triangle.JPG Only two Brown Hairstreaks seen today but one male came down quite low and opened his wings. DSCF0065.JPG And this pic is from a couple of days ago that I forgot to post at the time. DSCF9855.JPG There were plenty of other butterflies as usual. Today I got s...

Glad you found the Grayling shading itself Wurzel. If I had not seen it fly down there I would never have seen it just as I walked by. Their camouflage works in so many situations.

Cheers, guys. The more observations we get on this the better. I have just seen a Common Blue do a wing roll with wings open 45 degrees and with its body angled so that its rear wings were down by about 30 degree below the horizontal (ie not pointing upward).