Frits and Blues Headline the News.

A friend and I travelled down to Hampshire today on a bit of a butterfly watching safari hoping to catch up with some of the species that we don't see in Northants. Our first stop was Bentley Wood where a collection of Fritillaries were the target.

A Pearl-bordered Frit that took a liking to my jeans and a Small Pearl-bordered.

The frits proved to be rather obliging and we saw our first Pearl-bordered Frit within minutes of arrival. They've been on the wing for a while now and most were looking a little worn but I still enjoyed seeing them for the first time. A few Marsh Frits were also encountered and I have to say that they are a stunning butterfly. At this point a cry went up from some of the butterfly watchers that alerted us to a newly emerged Small Pearl-bordered Frit which was another new species. This was a very obliging individual that at various times perched on somebody's shoulder, a hand as well as on the more normal vegetation. Amongst the other species seen here were Grizzled and Dingy Skippers.

Marsh Frit and Dingy Skipper.
 

We left the butterflies and their many admirers to do their thing as we had another destination to check out, Martin Down. A national nature reserve this is an extensive area of chalk grassland and scrub that attracts several interesting butterflies typical of this habitat. Corn Bunting song seemed to fill the air and there seemed to be a healthy population here, the only other bird of note was a Raven.

Adonis and Small Blue.

My main target was Adonis Blue and it didn't take too long before we found our first and it was soon followed by many more. The males are a glorious bright blue and really do seem to gleam. They were joined by many Common Blues which provided some nice comparisons. Brown Argus butterflies showed well too and these bolshy little characters seemed to want to fight anything that passed. A few Small Blues were seen but they were very flighty and it took a long time before I managed to get a photo. Plenty of Small Heaths and a few Grizzled and Dingy Skippers were found while there was also an impressive number of Brimstones. Perhaps the most attractive of all the species were more Marsh Frits, we had a double figure count of them. A last little highlight before we left was my first Small Copper of the year, hopefully the first of many!

Grizzled Skipper and Corn Bunting.

Having achieved all of our targets and conscious that there was quite a drive home ahead of us we left at about four more than satisfied by our day's watching.

Pearl-bordered, Small Pearl-bordered and Marsh Fritillaries - nice!