Common Blue

What a lovely day it turned out to be :)
My lovely boss said I could take some time off during the day whilst the sun was shining and make it up another time - how cool is that!?
So, permission granted and a new place to visit, I headed up the M6 to J31 to Brockholes Nature Reserve - I saw it a few weeks ago on Countryfile.

It's a really nice reserve, despite being right next to the motorway. I wandered around for a while determined to get something new for today's blip. I met a couple who were looking for the White Letter Hairstreak Butterfly, one I'd never heard of, but one that is in decline due to the lack of Elm trees apparently. We were unlucky today and they were not around, but I did see quite a few other butterflies around - Comma, Meadow Brown, lots of Gatekeepers, Red Admiral, Large White and this tiny Common Blue. I don't think I've seen one before and it surprised me how small they were - lovely to see though, even if it did flit off quite quickly. It was a super couple of hours in the sun - shame I had to go back to work!!

I will definitely return to Brockholes again - there is so much more to see - I didn't even get round to seeing any birds...and that's not like me :)

Hope everyone is having a nice week so far.