The Tiny Small Blue

With a couple of hours spare today I wanted to see if I could see my first Small Blue of the year. On my usual patch this butterfly is a bit later appearing here than other Sussex sites with the slope being North facing. This butterfly is also quite scarce on this site with small numbers recorded each year. I think I saw around 6 in total today in 2 different areas of the patch. One was quite worn but the others were all pretty fresh. As always with the Small Blue it is difficult keeping an eye on them as they fly as they are so tiny.

male Small Blue.

This is a species that I have always struggled to get any decent pictures of over the years so it was pleasing to get a male posing nicely for me. With the sun coming in and out whilst it was sitting there and the wind blowing I was lucky it sat there long enough for a few attempts.