Cheers Trevor
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I played a similar game with the Heaths
Cheers Philzoid
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Looking forward to seeing how Germany was
Back to reality and Blighty...
Laverstock 27-07-2018
After such a successful day yesterday I suspected that this mornings’ visit would be quieter. There was also a palpable feeling of change in the air. I was still wearing sunglasses at 8:30 in the morning but today I was constantly taking them off and putting them back on again as the sun was hidden by the clouds. There was also a noticeable change in the temperature. With the sun out it was scorching and when the sun went in there was finally some blessed relief from the incessant heat of the past month.
As I walked down the path and started at the by-way along the edge of the field the small Ivy clump had a Common Blue on it and that was how things continued when I started bisecting and traversing the Down. I’d look back down the slope and there would be a multitude of white flags and little sapphires blinking in the slightest of breeze against the sandy coloured background. In amongst the Browns (both Meadow and Hedge as well as Small Heaths) there were also the occasional Whites and not all of the Blues were Common, some were much paler showing them to be Chalkhills.
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Eventually through my wanderings in reverie I ended up at the far side of the Down at the bottom of the gully. As I followed the course of the bramble filled demarcation hedge a little brown job detached itself from the ground and zipped off, jinking left and right but still heading ultimately in the same direction. Having encountered one only the day before I immediately guessed that it was a second brood Dingy. As I watched it another little brown job took off and set after it. There then ensued lots of argy bargy, chasing back and forth and flying round like a miniature cyclone a la Taz. I took a few Sports Mode shots and then one of the pair settled. So two second brood Dingies hopefully a female will also emerge and then the second brood will continue.
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![DSC_3330 - Copy.JPG (1.63 MiB) Viewed 1760 times DSC_3330 - Copy.JPG](./files/thumb_9821_064d94814d4634f1b360f9950a9bc84e)
After this I checked out the scallops and worked my way along the line of Knapweed and further up the gully. I got very annoyed with the Meadow Browns and Blue was not just the colour of the butterfly I was trying to get a shot of but also the air! I watched a pristine Chalkhill settle and start to open up its wings, a Meadow Brown bumbled over like an overfriendly puppy wanting to say hello and the Chalkhll was off to another flower. I’d follow it and watch it settle, stalk in closer and just get into position, start focusing and then a Meadow Brown did the same thing! This kept on happening so in the end cursing Meadow Browns I started to work back along the side of the Down and back towards the Tutor session.
A female Common Blue was present at the side of the field on my return leg and I paused for a moment or two to take in the wonderfully fresh Specklie which was at the junction of the path up to the Down and the path to the Tutors’ house.
No earth shattering sightings but still nice to see none the less and with a trip to Wales imminent and a change in the weather this could be the last butterflying trip for a good few days…
Have a goodun
Wurzel