expected common but struck silver

...I was up at six and out walking at six-thirty because the forecast was for early sun before rain set in later. As it turned out, there was far less sun than I had hoped for and it was cool with a heavy dew. As usual, there were plenty of Meadow Browns warming up on the brambles in Townsend Quarry, so I got my reserve image in the bag nice and early. Other than these, only the Burnets were up and about.

By seven, the Marbled Whites and Skippers were awake and, at seven-thirty, the south-facing hedges were full of Gatekeepers warming themselves up. The only one of those that I have not blipped for the Big Butterfly Count is the Large Skipper, which is another one of my reserve species.

After breakfast, we drove over to Studland Heath to check on the Nightjar chicks. As promised, I took a more appropriate lens and have posted a better image of one of the chicks here...

There are just six days left to complete your own fifteen minute butterfly count. This is a recap of what I have blipped during the first seventeen days:

Dark Green Fritillary
Marbled White
Six Spot Burnet (moth)
Comma
Essex Skipper
Gatekeeper
Small Copper
Small Heath
Chalkhill Blue
Small Skipper
Speckled Wood
Red Admiral
Lulworth Skipper
Small Blue
Grayling
Small White
and, today's blip, Silver Studded Blue

This afternoon, we paid a visit to Morden Bog in the hope of a Silver Studded Blue Plebeius argus but only expected to get a Common Blue at best. How wrong we were as there were several Silver-spotteds about (both male and female). The disappointment was that it was very windy and not really sunny, which made photography difficult and meant the butterflies were not resting open-winged...