She's been sitting in the tank with the lid off for the last two days now and still hasn't flown away even though she is alive and looks healthy
I went to Denbies this afternoon and it has put itself back in my good books again. I got very excited by what I found
I was looking for green hairstreak but the first butterflies I came across were dingy skippers; an awful lot of them!
They seemed prepared to weather the blustery conditions and down in the shelter of the hedgeline it was more sheltered and warm in the sunshine. A few burnet moths were buzzing around as well and the horseshoe vetch has just started to flower and the eyebright, cowslips, speedwell and other flowers are around but not in great numbers yet.
Occasionally I would see a grizzled skipper too, I think I encountered 4 or 5 in total but I uttered an audible wow when something settled and I immediately recognised it as a brown argos. I took a record shot from a distance but it wouldn't let me get anywhere near before it shot off again. Then something
blue whizzed into view, and then a second one. One stopped for a second which gave me long enough to see what it was. They were two adonis blue! The wind took them off eastwards along the slope and I didn't see them again but the elation didn't leave me all afternoon. Next surprise was a small copper with beautiful blue spots. Another first for the year were small heath, again there were quite a few of these about. A large white and a male brimstone flew along the hedgeline. Then the sun went in and they all disappeared.
I walked up the slope and bumped into some people who were on last weekend's outing to Rewell Wood, a very pleasant couple, Alan and Katie, and a colleague of Philzoid called (I think) Clive. I told them of what I had seen and they went to check out the area while I went looking further up for green hairstreak. Unfortunately I didn't find any and I joined them again at the bottom of the slope. There still wasn't much flying until the sun came out and we spotted the small copper again.
I left them and bimbled back up the slope as time was cracking on (about 5.30) and near the top I found a roosting small copper and also two roosting common blues.
All in all it was a great afternoon.
Brown argus in the undergrowth
Roosting common blue
Roosting small copper
Blue on hawthorn blossom