unexpected flash of blue

...on a day of frequent heavy showers accompanied by the odd peal of thunder, a strong wind and many an impressive rainbow, I was definitely not expecting to see any butterflies. In fact, I was rather suspecting that I had already blipped my last butterfly of the season.

As we only had time to go somewhere very local, we went to see what was about in our nearby Townsend Quarry nature reserve, where the wind was even fiercer than I had anticipated. This was a shame because I found a species of bee that I haven't seen here before but she was impossible to photograph with so much movement and poor light. Continuing my search, I found a poor little female common blue, Polyomatus icarus, sitting miserably on some Yarrow, Achillea millefolium. Unsurprisingly, her wings were closed and, as I started getting a few images, the heavens opened and I ran for the cover of the trees.

While waiting for the rain to stop, I was thinking how relevant the species name icarus is on a day like today - these beautiful butterflies only open their wings when the sun shines, like Icarus trying to fly close to the sun and, like Icarus again, here she was on the verge of being drowned!

Suddenly, the rain not only stopped but the sun came out, too. I ran back to where I left her and, sure enough, she had opened her wings. What a beauty...