Well, to answer my own question... The morning of Sunday 5th October brought lots of sunshine, but at ten this morning it was only 8 degrees instead of the 18 at the same time yesterday. However, I should know by now that for butterflies, sunshine is much more important than the actual air temperature, particularly if it is calm and pockets of warmth can build up. At just before midday, I set off round my local patch once again, the shirt sleeves of yesterday morning replaced by three layers! Very quickly, I found a couple of Red Admirals on a large patch of ivy, and then after a while, came across another lower down and relatively easy to get close too. This one looked small, and pretty new - but then all those I've seen lately looked new.
A couple of whites ambled along the hedgerows, and for once one stopped just within range. As suspected, it was a male Small White. After a while you do notice that Small and Green-veined do not fly quite the same, but for the life of me I can't describe exactly what that difference is...
Continuing round the loop, several Speckled Woods flitted in the sunshine, stopping to sunbathe more frequently than recently, and keeping well out of the shade. One individual was nectaring up on the ivy - not something I've seen before.
I caught up with a lady taking photos of swans on the river, and we ended up chatting about what there was of interest around. She liked wildlife in general but took an interest in dragonflies. I explained I was looking for butterflies, so she told me that a few minutes earlier a shiny blue one had been down on the path, but all she had snapped was a white splodge. She carried on: I stayed, knowing that Holly Blue males when taking minerals often return to the same spot for hours on end. I was right, as moments later, the Holly Blue returned to the path, taking particular interest in a large patch of horse dung. I observed it for around half an hour in all, and identified its routine. After taking minerals from the dung or the path for several minutes, it would fly up and settle on the nettles at the side of the path. After another minute, it would slowly open its wings and bask. At around maximum extent, it would then twitch, fly off and flutter up and down the path before settling back down to slurp up some more goodies. I watched this sequence repeat five or six times (about every five minutes I suppose). The only deviation was when a passing family disturbed it and the basking took place higher up on the opposite side of the path. I assume that whilst taking on minerals, with wings closed, the relatively cold air today caused the butterfly to need to warm up - so it flew up to sun itself. With less heat in the sunshine than at other times of the year, it had to open up quite a lot to do this. Once warmed, back to the path it went... and repeat! In the end I had to drag myself away, leaving a lovely butterfly happily sitting atop a pile of manure. Something we've all done, I'm sure...
Half an hour with a very obliging Holly Blue led to a lot of photos, for which I won't apologise!
- A completely different angle to the sun - startlingly blue!
After all that I did see another two Red Admirals, and finally a Comma (probably the one I'd glimpsed late on yesterday).
Dave
Still trying to catch up on my PD, maybe by Christmas I'll have gotten there 
Definitely not something you could set out to see. The behaviour was fascinating, too.
Cracking shots of the Cloudy 
Still I've saved my sorrows ready to drown them at the Social 
