similar but not the same

...as the weather was dull and misty, I decided it would be better to stay close to the coast in the hope of spotting one or other of my two target species - Common or Holly Blue. My choice of location had pros and cons: the advantage was a dry day that was marginally brighter than it would have been inland, the disadvantage was a very strong wind.

We took a slightly different route up through Townsend Quarry and down to the path that runs along the downs above the coast path. I wasn't really expecting to see anything interesting so I was taken by surprise when I disturbed a blue butterfly that battled the wind and landed a few metres in front of us. It was a freshly emerged female Common Blue Polyommatus icarus and, better than that, she was a mariscolore form, in which the female's upper wings have a mostly blue basal colour instead of the usual brown. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing her about and I was only able to get one shot before she was bowled away, never to be seen again! We spent ages searching the whole area but no other blues were to be found.

At the bottom of the path, near Anvil Point lighthouse, we found a gorgeous Small Elephant Hawk Moth, which would have been my blip for today if only it was one of the moths included in this year's butterfly count.

No other interesting butterflies came to light during our walk. When we got home and I uploaded my single frame, it was, as expected, too blurred to use or even retain. Not deterred, I went back on my own this evening to try finding her again. No luck but I did find a male It was still windy and, once again, I got one shot before he was whisked away. The resulting frame is not in perfect focus but good enough to use as my blip for today's species.

Just before I found him, I came across a solitary Roe Buck that watched me alertly but was unbothered by my presence. I have included a couple of shots with the Hawk Moth on our blog. The moth is truly worth seeing.

I was so disappointed not to get an image of the mariscolore Common Blue but I will continue searching for her over the next few days because this particular form is normally only found in Ireland and on the west coast of Scotland.

p.s. despite the similarity, this is a different species from yesterday's...