Silver-studded

Only a 6 week window to nail a shot of this beautiful Silver-studded Blue and an hour and a half to get there on the motorway. No idea what to expect and if they would be around to see at all! 

They as luck would have it were ovipositing and nectaring but not mating as the females weren't having any of it. 

The eggs are white discs with minute spikes, laid close to the ground on a plant such as heather or bird's-foot-trefoil and stay there over the winter with a tiny caterpillar inside them. These are taken into the Black Ants nest as caterpillars as they secrete a sugar and the ants in turn protect them from predators. They pupate for about 6 weeks and then emerge...to see me today!

I was utterly thrilled to see them and as I knelt on a mound on the heath I was in ecstasy as they all fluttered around! Definitely a WOW moment for me!!! Another tick in the box.