Blue Monday.

The Bank Holiday weekend was a pretty cold and dismal affair. However, it takes a lot to put me off going out in the hope of finding something of interest and with the thought that areas of my local patch may be protected from the cold breeze I set out.

I was right in thinking I could find some sheltered spots and on Monday I saw 3 species of Blue butterflies with a very nice Adonis Blue as well as 4 Common Blue and a beautiful Brown Argus. Even though the weather was far from Summer-like the downs were waking up to Summer butterflies.

When the little bit of sun went behind the clouds the Common Blue soon went to roost mode, but then flying again with another gap in the clouds giving me a couple of opportunities.

Male Common Blue roosting.

Common Blue roosting on Salad Burnet.

Male Brown Argus.

I also managed to find 2 roosting Skippers, a Dingy and a Grizzled. The Grizzled I found on the end of a Hawthorn twig and after photographing it I could see that there was a chance that the sun may come back out again. Unfortunately all the small gaps in the clouds missed the sun but I could still see that in the far distance the sky did look lighter so I hung around. Eventually, after about an hour the blue sky returned and the Skipper began to wake up giving me the chance to photograph this fresh individual with wings open.

Dingy Skipper at roost.

Grizzled Skipper at roost.

Grizzled Skipper waking up as the sun returned.