Edstone (butterflies and cricket)

On Thursday morning we sat on the towpath and listened to the cricket – what a riveting two hours before lunch.  After lunch we decided to go butterflying rather than have a cruise.  Karen had never seen a Chalkhill Blue so we went to some local downland and were really excited about the number of different butterflies we saw.  Karen had lots of opportunities to try out her camera settings.  This is a female Common Blue – they are usually brown but this was a blue form.

Just after seeing the Common Blue Karen was rewarded with a male Chalkhill Blue – her first ever.  She was lucky as they only start emerging in August and it was quite a windy day.  Unfortunately it never settled long enough for her to get close but at least she could see the pale blue colours.  Photographing butterflies can be very difficult as they constantly move and never settle for long.

This was the underside.

Here is the downland we walked along.

We didn’t get many more shots but saw our first Brown Argus, Dark Green Fritillary and Graylings of the year.  This is a Speckled Wood.

And this is a Red Admiral.

We sat outside in the evening reflecting on the brilliant afternoon of butterflying – oh, and had a couple of glasses or so of wine of course.