skipping through the meadows

...with a 23 day duration, it was always going to be a challenge to blip a different butterfly for every day of the Big Butterfly Count, so it was inevitable that I would eventually need to post a species that I have blipped at some time in the past, though, so far, they are all unique within the series. I did blip a Small Skipper Thymelicus sylvestris on the 9th July but that was both before the count started and was a female.

My target species for today was actually a Speckled Wood as there are a few about and I haven't managed to capture a really good image yet. Unfortunately, there were none around as we walked up through the reserve to the wildflower meadows. I did get a super shot of a pair of Six Spot Burnets propagating the species and some nice ones of a Large Skipper. The highlight of our walk was seeing our first pair of Clouded Yellows this year, but they fluttered off across a private meadow.

I chose this male Small Skipper image, partly because of the reasonable detail, but mostly because I love the way he is drinking nectar from the Catsear Hypocchoeris radicata...