Today I succeeded in recording my 50th species of butterfly in single year, having beaten my previous total of 49 a couple of years ago. Although I 'missed' a couple of previously seen species this year, three new lifers have brought up my numbers.
Last week I ticked off brown hairstreak at RSPB Otmoor, (although I found just one female without its 'tails') and today I visited Warren Hill just outside Tidworth, to look for silver spotted skippers. I soon found what I was looking for, among dozens of chalkhill blues and meadow browns. The 'teddy bear faced' silver skippers are fast flyers, skimming over the low grass, kept short by rabbits. They were easy to spot, but stopped only for seconds on any flower they could find before flying off again. They remained low down, making photography hard as there were few long stemmed flowers to perch on.
After a while, I wandered over to where I could see some other people also looking for butterflies. They had found a few stems of scabious flowers which were attracting the skippers regularly so I waited with them and before long was able to get the photos I wanted.
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