On the finger

My knee is very painful at the moment so I had to miss the monthly HNHS walk to Iping common today, to compensate I went with Mr U&L for a short stroll there this evening to see if I could find the roosting Silver-studded blues.
As you can see I did find a few, and this beautiful female even sat on my finger, which gives you a good idea of just how tiny she actually is!
I didn't find as many as usual though and to make matters worse a lot of the heather had been totally burned and removed, I am not sure if this was deliberate or an accidental fire but the destruction was quite extensive.
The Silver-studded blue Plebejus argus, is a small heath land butterfly that has a restricted distribution but can be found in good numbers where it does occur. Both sexes have the distinctive metallic blue spots on the underside of the hindwings.