Hi Charles - my guess is that this is indeed a Common Blue. The colour of the underside hindwing lunules varies quite a bit - from orange-red through to very pale lemon-yellow - and your one looks as if this has gone to the extreme of them not being coloured at all! Everything else looks like a Comm...

Cheers, Wurzel! Female Adonis are worth seeking out as fresh ones can be stunning. One of my favourite all-time butterflies was an example which was velvety midnight black generously sprinkled with shining silvery-blue scales like stars in a night sky. :) Tuesday 4th June was a carbon copy of the da...

3rd June - Common Blues on my local patch. There is a reliable population of this species on the grassland of my local patch - unsurprising since at this time of year, a good proportion is carpeted with birds'-foot trefoil, black medick and clover. There are also vetches, and lots of grass vetchlin...

On Monday 3rd June , the familiar story of sunshine being at a premium returned. On the plus side, it was reasonably warm, the cloud was relatively thin, and some butterflies at least were prepared to take to the air (or bask on leaves and flowers at least). After the first Meadow Brown of 2024 the ...

That blue female Common Blue is a beautiful insect, Bertl!

Dave

Back on my local patch for the afternoon of 2nd June , I saw more species than I had at Denbies in the morning. Nothing as exotic as an Adonis Blue of course, but a good selection. The totals over a leisurely couple of hours: Common Blue 15 Holly Blue 14 Small Heath 8 Brown Argus 7 Speckled Wood 3 R...

Cheers, Wurzel! That Copper let me get much closer than those Walls would... :) Sunday 2nd June was a total contrast - 14 hours of sunshine and temperatures up to a more summery 24 degrees. I headed down to Denbies quite early to avoid the traffic (success - it only took just over half an hour) and ...

The weather was no better to kick off summer on Saturday 1st June - barely any sunshine and a mere 17 degrees as a high. My local patch yielded only seven butterflies, and here are most of them... :) SH1 010624.JPG HB1 010624.JPG RA6 010624.JPG CB1 010624.JPG CB5 010624.JPG CB3 010624.JPG Dave

More fun with the Surrey Black hairstreaks today. Was hard going at the usual spot where everyone and the monkeys uncle shows up at but when it got too busy for my liking I wandered off to explore the wider area, something I've been meaning to do for a couple of years after being told they're wides...

When I left home on the morning of Friday 31st May , it was indeed starting to cloud over. I set off down the M3/A303 to meet Wurzel for a wander around Sidbury hillfort and I soon began to overtake the edge of the cloud. By Basingstoke I had emerged into sunshine, but on arrival it was still going ...

Wurzel wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2024 7:07 pm Just wondering if anyone had any ideas if this Small Heath is a named ab? Cheers in advance...
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Have a goodun

Wurzel

I still don't know its name, Wurzel, but I did find a similar one today (but not as pale or as "blind" as yours... ). Dave

Those are great Duke shots, Wurzel. I love the way they deploy their legs to achieve perfect balance on those windy perches - and sometimes almost instantaneously after returning from one of their towering aerial disputes.

Cheers,

Dave

Definite :mrgreen: for the Small Pearls, Trevor - good to see they are still hanging on down there in Sussex. It's also good that the Ditchling population of Black Hairstreaks continues to thrive, though with the one at Epsom ticking over nicely too, the social activity is split between the two thes...

Very pale ones (with nearly white ground colour instead of yellow-orange on the upperside) are ab. alba - but your one lacks its eyespot as well!

No idea, Wurzel - it's a terrific find, whatever it might be called...

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers, Trevor and Wurzel - I shall keep plugging away at those Small Heath shots... :) I'm beginning to spot when they are about to land somewhere, when their flap-rate slows down a bit. This happens in cooler cloudy weather too, which is probably why the more recent shots are better! :) A case in ...

Down at Epsom Common this morning whilst it was still sunny, the Black Hairstreaks were looking good and also surprisingly amenable to being photographed.I also spotted what I think is a white-legged damselfly. More shots in my PD when it catches up...

Dave

28th was another rare "blank" day, but 29th May was warmer and had reasonable amounts of sunshine. I recorded the highest count of Common Blues so far this year (18), a higher total than any day in the 2023 spring brood - but by contrast, Brown Argus have not been doing so well. Last year ...

Hi Pat, Without knowing about any local Scottish varieties there might be in that area, that looks to me like a standard Small Heath, very similar in colour and markings to some I see down near me in SE England. It's difficult to judge the size from the photo, but they do vary quite a bit and I've s...

A few Adonis were still emerging at Denbies on 2nd June, Mark - they seem to have had a strong first brood here this year. That's a nice Grizzled Skipper too (I didn't see any of those on 2nd). It won't be long now before the Marbled Whites appear... As you say, summer is here.

Cheers,

Dave

Cheers, Wurzel - the Marshies were an absolute delight that day, and the Hill delivered well with respect to other things too. :) Back on the timeline again, 27th May was a mixed bag weatherwise, sunshine and showers, quite breezy but reasonably warm. I stayed local and I think I did well not to get...