On The Hunt For Blues, Blues, and More Blues

Tuesday forecast last week pretty good,, and the butterfly website said there'd been sightings of Adonis, Common, Silver Studded and Chalkhill Blues at Tout Quarry, Portland the previous couple of days. Mrs PB was working, so I pinged my sister a message as she's off Tuesdays usually, to see if she fancied a jolly. Indeed she did, so I picked her up just before 7, and off we jolly well went!

When we arrived, a bit of movement caught my eye, and in the scrubby shrubs, a Common Whitethroat (I was glad I'd decided to start with the big lens, or we wouldn't have more than a speck to see lol)

There was the constant nattering of Goldfinches, and chattering of Sparrows too, but I didn't get any shots. Sis's eye was obviously "in", and she soon spotted the roosting targets! (It was still quite cool, cloudy, and a tad breezy (not forecasted!) at 8 when we arrived.

Chalkhill Blues

I was still wielding the big lens, and was grateful again, as a Buzzard cruised by

And carved a large circle through the air, before ascending to new heights

I decided to switch to the macro lens as sis was using the 70-200, mainly because the butterflies were in a forest of grass stems, and the breeze was still causing havoc with an 8 foot minimum focal distance!

The depth of field at f3.3 was too shallow, so I went to f5, and shooting at 1/2500 to try and negate the breeze

A nice selection of underwings there, to confuse the casual butterfly observer (I include myself in that! I do think they are all Chalkhill, though)

Sis decided she was switching to het macro, so I went to the 70-200.... the Grass Stem Forest we were shooting through/into

Not sure, but we may have a Common Blue (forewing spot near body, plus white border?)

Back to Chalkhill

Red Tailed Bumble Bee? (per Lens)

One of BD's Lotsaspotted Ladybirds (I think you can see the fairly obvious differences here BD? )

Buff Tailed Bumble? (again, per Lens)

Downside of the 70-200 lens, is you're bound to get a Kestrel fly-by too far away for a decent pic!, but it does make it easier to focus on the Wall Brown just in front of you!!

The sun was threatening to peak through the cloud, and there was a bit more activity amongst the butterflies, and some wingspreading to warm up... had to look where you were stepping

Can't decide what the next one is, underwing is very grey. I'm guessing Chalkhill on probability of numbers

Meadow Grasshopper (per Lens)

Obviously, because it's brown, it's a blue butterfly  (female Chalkhill I think)

Another grasshopper, but possibly a different make

Possibly a female Adonis.... but equally possibly not!

Gatekeeper

Red Admiral

Proof, that despite all the recent woes of Buddleah being bee and butterfly free....it DOES still work!

One of the bazillion Hoverflies

A handy underwing and open wing comparison of Wall

And a size comparison (I'm guessing male and female... female is bigger)

Nom nom nommm

A spider type thing scooting over the grass

And a final Chalkhill

So in all a pleasant wander round somewhere I'd only been once before. Sis had never seen any numbers of Blue's before, so that was a good result, even if we didn't see the variety, or get any Adonis in sunshine to show his brilliance. Worth a revisit I think, on a hopefully brighter day. It also homes several species of birds on migration, so I think safe to say, in my best Arnie accent, I'll be back!

Thanks for viewing, and as always ID corrections welcome (I've got a funny feeling they are all going to turn out to be Chalkhill Blues lol)

Stay Safe All