Sunday Blues

A late 'winter' cold put paid to any thoughts I may have harboured about wandering further afield this weekend, so I indulged myself on Saturday with Lemsip and a lie-in. Suitably refreshed and a little stir crazy by Sunday, I managed a gentle stroll around Ballard Down to get my quota of fresh air, flora and fauna. Encouraged by the results I have been getting recently with my '1st summer' 100-400mm lens, I also aimed to get some more butterfly photographs. And very rewarding it was too, despite the imperfect weather, with some interesting colour variants of female Adonis Blue among the highlights.

Female Adonis Blue - one of the bluest I have seen, a mesmerising aberration - apparently this is more common in spring broods

Another striking individual - even bluer than the one above, but with orange hindwing spots reduced in brightness - nectaring on Horseshoe Vetch, which is also the larval foodplant

A more conventional female Adonis

The stunning male Adonis Blue

A number of males were quite approachable in the cool conditions of Sunday afternoon

And finally, a pair of Adonis Blues doing their bit for the next generation

A male Common Blue - more lilac in colouration than the Adonis, and note how the white outer fringes to the wings are unbroken by black marks

A Common Blue roosting up in overcast conditions

This is a female Common Blue - like the female Adonis above, this one is at the bluer end of the spectrum



Don't be fooled by the name 'Brown Argus' - this was the third species of blue I saw on the wing at Ballard Down

Brown Argus underside - they were relatively inactive in the overcast conditions



Fortunately, this provided the opportunity for close study of roosting individuals - I love the rich orange spotting on the underside