May (Part 4)
As May wore on, the butterfly season, having started late began to get going. I went on regular walks on my patch, trying to find new butterflies in new spots. It was on one such walk - searching for Orange Tips in a small piece of woodland, that I had a fantastic suprise.
I stopped for a while, leaning on a fence post when I saw a butterfly move past very quickly, skimming over the buttercups and sorrel heads in the nearby field. The powder blue uppersides made its identity even more obvious than its hasty searching flight - a male Common Blue.
Common Blues have always been somewhat difficult to track down in my neck of the woods. The system of Agriculture with intensive grazing - often at the wrong times of year can mean that as soon as they get established at a spot, they get disturbed and pushed out, only to turn up at a different spot the next year. They tend to be particularly hard to find in the first brood, and as such I was overjoyed to chance upon five or six of these little beauties - my first of the year.
It was midday at the time of my discovery, and consequently they weren't sticking around for photos, still, not defeated, I vowed to return in the evening, hoping for better photographic opportunities.
I was not disappointed, and over the next few days, I took several walks to photograph these little beauties, paying particular attention to some of the stunning females.
![UKB 157.JPG (1.82 MiB) Viewed 1674 times Common Blue - Female](./files/thumb_13033_cac7c7f9e19cfda05065a6d491b76456)
- Common Blue - Female
![Common Blue - Keeper's 60.JPG (1.4 MiB) Viewed 1674 times Common Blue - Female](./files/thumb_13033_95518ac721a6bb6643c7fa10213ca8fe)
- Common Blue - Female
![Common Blue - Keeper's 29.JPG (2.41 MiB) Viewed 1674 times Common Blue - Male](./files/thumb_13033_7ae25a0459c721ff8e9e8e48d6b57fde)
- Common Blue - Male
![Common Blue - Keeper's 32.JPG (1.29 MiB) Viewed 1674 times Common Blue - Male](./files/thumb_13033_b7699e541edfec2113f33cc94e1441b7)
- Common Blue - Male
At the same spot in 2012, I also saw this male Common Blue. At the time I wondered if it was an aberration, being ghostly pale in its underside colour (its upperside was perfectly normal), at first I thought it was battered, but seeing the fresh white borders, I do wonder if it was in fact very fresh, and unusually pale.
![UKB.jpg (379.4 KiB) Viewed 1674 times Common Blue - Male - Possible Aberration](./files/thumb_13033_134168a703d71dad663aab6cf29499ef)
- Common Blue - Male - Possible Aberration