It has been quite pleasing this year to see reasonable numbers of Grizzled Skippers on my local downland patch, especially as a lot of my Winter conservation work has been aimed at helping these great little butterflies, they have also expanded into areas where they haven't been seen for a couple of years.
In all the years I've been searching butterflies on the patch I have never seen the taras form of the Grizzled Skipper there despite seeing them reasonably regularly in some of the woodland sites I visit. In fact the taras form is quite a rare beast on downland sites and I have only seen one once before way back in 2011 at Offham.
Grizzled Skipper taras form (Offham 2011).
Last week I was strolling around on the patch when suddenly a Grizzled Skipper taras flew up in front of me. I managed to get a few record shots of the butterfly before it flew behind me and I lost it.
About 10 minutes later and around 300 metres further along the valley a very fresh Grizzled Skipper flew past me down the slope and as I approached where it had landed I was amazed to see it was a 2nd taras form. This one was even better marked.
Grizzled Skipper taras form.
The 2nd butterfly.
2nd Grizzled Skipper taras form.
Lovely captures Bob. You're lucky to have them close to you. Been many years since I last saw one of them.
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