I paid a short visit to the heathland site at Silchester Common, near Tadley to look for my target species, the silver studded blue butterfly. It is handy to have this area of heathland so close to my daughter's home, so when visiting her today, I was keen to see if this species was on the wing as it is still fairly early in their flight season.
Parking at my usual spot in Impstone Road, I took a footpath out on to the heath where there are gorse bushes and some low heather plants. There were a few clouds about so I waited for the sun to appear before scanning the area close to the ground. It wasn't long before the first blue butterfly appeared. Not being able to get close enough to check , I wondered if it might be a common blue which are also found at this site, but then several more appeared together which indicated to me that they were silver- studded blues. It took ages before any would settle, but eventually some did and I was able to take some photos. They were mostly the blue males but I did see one brown female.
During my visit I also saw a few stonechats, an emperor dragonfly and a golden ringed dragonfly although the dragonflies didn't settle.
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