As you say, Buggy, a slight change in the weather and you'd think it was a different place altogether!
Denbies is always worth a visit, Wurzel, but with some of the sites you have near you, I'm not sure I'd venture very far at all!
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I think now that the female blue might just be a Chalkhill, because of the hindwing white spots which I don't think I've seen on an Adonis - but still not sure!
The season is still alive, David - just about. It'll only take a few days of bad weather to thoroughly dampen it down. However, fingers crossed for some extra broods and a bit of selective targeting of sites may produce a few results even now!
Thank you, Goldie (and Buggy) - I was very pleased with the last skipper shot in particular, created more by luck than anything when the second one appeared just as I got the background right!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
You're quite right - it evokes the full memory of the day and the place in the way the more clinical shots with plain backgrounds never can. They could be taken anywhere (someone's front room even...).
Saturday 2nd September: Another lovely day to make the most of, so I headed up to Aston Rowant to see how things had progressed since my last visit on 13th August. Initially, the most noticeable thing was the large number of bright new female Meadow Browns nectaring in the early sunshine, spreading their wings wide in a way I don't normally see.
Joining the Meadow Browns were a selection of whites, including these two, a fresh female GVW and a male Small White.
As I walked across the slopes, the numbers of blue butterflies increased, including the little silver flashes of Brown Argus.
There were still a few very worn Chalkhills...
...and some Common Blues...
...but most eye-catching were still the Adonis Blues, whose dazzling colour seems to intensify the more worn they become.
A lovely new Small Copper put in an appearance...
...as did a couple of Brimstones later on.
I had searched in vain for a nice female Adonis, when at last I thought I'd found one. The butterfly settled and showed itself to be something a bit unusual - ab.
krodeli? A glimpse of the upperside showed deep chocolate and a turquoise dusting of scales - definitely Adonis.
Last, but by no means least, were the Silver-spotted Skippers, still flying energetically about. I didn't manage many shots (after Denbies the day before it didn't seem to matter).
I followed one female down to the ground where she appeared to lay. After she'd flown off to another spot I looked for an egg in the grass, and found five!
I then took a couple of routine shots of another skipper, first nectaring and then on the ground when it hopped off the flower.
It was only when I was going through the photos at home later on that I realised what was odd about it: It was half female, half male. A bilateral gynandromorph no less, the stuff of dreams (though somehow less spectacular than to see this condition manifesting in a blue butterfly or the magnificent SWF found a few years ago at Southwater). Coming a day after seeing the beautiful QoS, two "once in a lifetime" events in two days? And a really nice Adonis aberration as well... Whatever next?
Dave