Monday morning blues

Not quite as many butterflies as yesterday's mass flight of the Chalkhill Blues (several enthusiasts report seeing 'tens of thousands' of Chalkhill Blues in Sussex yesterday) but here's one of my all-time favourites, the beautiful Brown Argus. They can be hard to spot as they vie with the Small Blue for the accolade of Britain's smallest butterfly. Despite its diminutive size it is super aggressive and will take on any butterflies that enter its territory. Confusingly this almost entirely brown butterfly is classified in the family of blue butterflies. I also saw a Silver-spotted skipper this morning, my 40th species of the year, but failed to get a photograph of it. Hopefully there will be more later in the week.