nearly a no show

...yesterday's mist, drizzle and wind, persisted into today and, even in the dry spells, the quality of light was as dull as ditchwater!

Wanting to keep my butterfly series going, I made several forays into know flutter-by haunts only to be disappointed. Niente! Finally, as the afternoon morphed into evening, the sky became brighter and the wind dropped. A little bit.

Shooting back to the common where I saw a few Essex Skippers Thymelicus lineola last weekend, I was full of hope. Niente! Not being one to give up, I started brushing through some of the longer grass and struck gold! The gold of skippers! Most were Smalls (nothing to do with underwear) but there were a few female Essex among them, including this one that sportingly sat on a dandelion clock. Ideally, I would like to have tidied the stray blades of grass but this was no day for idealism.

I have blipped Lulworth and Small skippers and even thought I had blipped a Large but, while checking, it seems I didn't so I will be able to fill a space in the current series with one...