Small skippers - pale patches

[zigzag_wanderer]

Hi All,

Doing the rounds of my local fields today, I noticed a couple of small skippers both showing pale yellow patches.

The marks seem symmetrical (apologies for one very out of focus snap that at least shows this) on both individuals, so could this be from water damage, or maybe just a sign of ageing ?

I'm a bit of a novice so apologies if this is an extremely common feature with golden skippers.

PS That's "small" with a small "s" in the subject line .... i'm hedging my bets as to whether these are Small or Essex girls.