Thanks for the views on the flashlit Orange Tip, Bill and Goldie. I'm still not decided, but it's interesting to see how you can vary the photos you get.
Bishop's Hill looks a brilliant place, Neil - whereabouts are the Small Blues? I didn't have time to look far and only found the Dingies (very easily!).
A day off today, primarily for a dental appointment, but luck in the form of brilliant blue skies shone down. There was time to visit Bentley Wood to see the Pearls, so off I trundled. If anything, it was too sunny: the butterflies (there were good numbers of Pearls out) were forever on the move, even when stopping to nectar. However, females going to ground and pausing between laying eggs provided a few opportunities to see and photograph a non-moving butterfly.
There was quite a bit of egg-laying activity, though the poor females were frequently interrupted by one or more amorous and hopeful males.
As well as the Pearls, there were lots of Brimstones about, a few Orange Tips and Peacocks and nice to see again, a few Dukes. I found a couple in the same area of the eastern clearing as last year, and they were both quite dark specimens - as indeed was the one I saw in 2014. Is this a characteristic of woodland Dukes, as opposed to downland ones?
The traffic was also kind today, and I had plenty of time once I'd returned home to look around my local patch again. Small Heaths have now appeared, with three brand new examples chasing each other around.
Common Blues and Brown Argus should follow shortly. Otherwise, it was the usual suspects, with abundant Holly Blues everywhere I went, Whites (Large and Green-veined), Orange Tips of both sexes, Brimstones, a couple of Speckled Woods and Commas, and no less than nine Peacocks.
Three old codgers had set up adjacent territories along a piece of path, and despite their tattered wings and shrivelled abdomens, they were scrapping as energetically as ever and had lost none of their aerobatic abilities.
Amazing really for butterflies now a good ten months old.
Dave