As soon as we got our loungers and bedded in, the ladies were very keen to get on with reading their books while I was itching to get over to the dunes … sorted!
The first area I checked out was the area where I’d seen the Small Copper and it didn’t take long to find myself another
. The butterfly’s hindwings had a dark blue hue to them. In addition, it was visiting a plant which looked like the garden bedding plant, alyssum (which when I was a kid, just about everyone who had a garden would grow it in their lawn borders alternating with dark blue lobelia … but I digress somewhat 
)- Small Copper on Alyssum?
As on my previous visit to the dunes, it was tiring work trying to keep up with the Small Whites treading through loose sand and with two DSLR’s hanging around my neck. So in the end I shifted my attention onto the clumps of Lotus creticus Broad-leaved Bird’s-foot Trefoil as this was the plant on which I’d found my Lang’s Short-tailed Blue.
Some of the trefoil was in flower and I figured I might have a good chance of finding another Lang’s. In actuality it proved better than I expected as straight away I was into a male Long-tailed Blue (it wouldn’t be a proper holiday for me without LTB wouldn’t it Wurzel 
?). My 8th species of the holiday .But it wasn't one for very long as a female boeticus hove into view
.
). From what I saw pirithous was commoner than boeticus out-numbering it by about 3 to 1. On the website that Chris Jackson sent me a link to, it stated pirithous as being the more abundant (of the two) and my own findings appear to bear this out. http://diatheo.weebly.com/papillons-agr ... mbre1.html
- Lang's Short-tailed Blue and Long-tailed Blue habitat
- Sea Holly an endemic plant
- ?
- One of many Goldfinches seen in small flocks around the dunes
. Then as the sun began to set we were treated to a wonderful sunset amongst a wide strip of Altocumulus clouds . Pictures of the sky and more to follow in (final) part 5 .Phil
.
. Perhaps I just know how to search better these days 