Blue and orange

Finally the sun was shining and it was steamy hot today ... perfect weather for all those butterflies that have been missing from my walks over the last few weeks. There's one in particular, the chalkhill blue, that I've been waiting for. I hadn't seen any yet this year, but today was the day!

Beautiful Grangelands in the sun

I walked around Grangelands and there they were, beautiful powder blue, flitting low around the flowers, settling occasionally to pose for a photo.

I walked over to the Rifle Range side of the reserve, but I didn't see any at all over there. They all seemed to like the Grangelands side, probably to catch the morning sun or stay out of the breeze. At one point I stood at the bottom of a slope and counted 16 male chalkhill blues flying ahead of me in a small area. I only saw the male butterflies, which are the pale blue colour, and didn't see any of the brown coloured females. Maybe they haven't hatched yet.

There were lots of marbled whites, meadow browns and ringlets flying and I saw several small skippers, a red admiral and a couple of small tortoiseshells. I also saw my first gatekeeper of the year (although I've just seen one in the garden as well).

Gatekeeper

Small tortoiseshell

I couldn't help but laugh at the little red beetles mating on the hogweed, completely covered in pollen and hanging on upside down. They looked a bit drunk on pollen!

I walked back through the shade of the woods and saw a speckled wood in the dappled sunlight.

Speckled wood

All sorts of things love hogweed, so I stopped to look at what was feeding on some growing on the side of the path. I was just trying to get a photo of a spotted longhorn beetle, when a flash of orange hurtling past completely distracted me (so I only got a photo of the beetles bottom!)

A spotted longhorn beetles bottom

Wondering what it was, I waited for it to come back and soon the most beautiful silver washed fritillary settled right in front of me on the hogweed. You can clearly see the silver lines on the underside of the wing that give them their name.

I was feeling pretty pleased with my morning already, but then a second silver washed fritillary appeared and started chasing the first one around me. They kept coming back to the hogweed, settling briefly, then setting off again. I stood there and watched them for several minutes.

They look like they're bouncing up and down on the hogweed

To top it all off, I saw a zebra through the bushes. Who needs to go on safari when you've got the Chilterns!