Thanks for the comments, all.
Sunday 8th May 2015 - Shock to the system....
After being cold for seemingly forever, a sudden day of sunshine and 24c temperatures could mean only one thing - many hours out in the field!
I started at Rodborough Common just after 9am, at which time it was raining. However, by 10 o'clock skies had cleared although butterfly activity took a while to lift off.
My first Green Hairstreaks of the year were seen; this one being extremely frustrating as it insisted upon landing at the top of a hawthorn bush with the sun directly behind it. Shame really, as it was a fresh specimen with a nice set of white 'streaks':
Dingy Skippers were about too, probably a couple of dozen of them:
All was worryingly quiet in the 'Duke' hotspot on this site at first, but compensation arrived via the sighting of a mating pair:
After about ten minutes, the male detached himself and moved to the tip of the leaf:
He then flew straight back down into the main 'lek' area, whilst the female, abdomen bulging, basked for a couple of minutes:
I was interested to see what she did following pairing, and unlike the male, she headed up the slope in 4 bursts of about 10 metres, briefly resting in between. Her fifth flight took her right over the top of the slope and well away from the half dozen or so males in the 'lek' area. These males continued to joust with one another, periodically alighting for a rest:
With it now being midday, I decided to head back to the car and catch up with Pearl Bordered Fritillaries in Herefordshire, stopping briefly to take a panoramic of this beautiful site:
I detoured through the country lanes around Skenfrith where my car temperature gauge hit 25c!!! Hard to believe that a week earlier I was sitting in my friend's conservatory in nearby Abergavenny with the wood fire lit!
Arriving at Ewyas Harold just before 2pm, I was unsurprised to see
Willrow's VW in the car park, and even less of a surprise was to find him in the PBF hotspot a couple of hundred metres into the site.
Males were whizzing around like bullets but eventually I spotted a much more docile female who was content to flutter about only a little and take time out basking:
All told, I reckon I saw roughly two dozen, but given I'll be in Abergavenny next weekend, I will probably head back (weather permitting) to see if things improve.