ID by location/habitat?

[timP]

Hi, very new to the world of butterflies and the internet!!
Hope someone can help, i was on Dartmoor on thurs june 2nd, on the west okement river close to black a tor copse.
The ground was mostly bog, much bog cotton in evidence, the day was very hot dry and sunny. there were large numbers of 'little brown jobs' as Patrick Barkham would put it!! Thumb nail sized and low flying and skittish. The land is open and exposed, gently sloping, fast flowing river at valley base, slope faces SW.
Can anyone suggest what we may have been watching from this description? All photos were lost due to digital incompetence on my part and those of us who were there can not agree on the finer details of how it looked!!
Please if you can help a bumbling amateur i would greatly appreciate it.
PS also seen were flashes of blue, slightly larger than the brown but no close sightings, what might these have been.
thanks in advance, Tim

[David M]

Could be Small Heath if they were out in the open. They're pretty hardy souls.

[timP]

Thank you David M.

[m_galathea]

Hi Tim,

The butterflies you describe sound like Small Heath to me too. At this time of year the open moors should have lots about - I remember walking from Ivybridge over to Princetown and most of the way I was accompanied by Small Heaths in abundance.

The any blues in the area would be likely to be Common Blue.

Alexander