Blue

Cathy is away helping a friend celebrate the friends 60th birthday this weekend.  Left to my own devices I took the opportunity to visit some of the nature reserves on the Mendips that I've been meaning to get around to.

When I arrived it was very overcast and I wondered if perhaps I had made a mistake coming today, as it was sunny only a few miles down the road back home.  Fortunately after an hour or so the heaviest of the clouds started to break and the light brightened up.  

It was an eventful trip, I saw a fox cub grubbing at a bank of soil, but once he spotted me he turned tail and disappeared.  The photos of him show either his face buried in the ground or his tail disappearing into a nearby thicket.  I managed better with a hare, but decided that I had to feature the two butterflies for blip.

The main is a male Common Blue (which is rather delightfully Polyommatus icarus in the scientific description).  Its not a particularly rare butterfly but lovely to see all the same.  The extra is the  Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages).  which is very much in decline