Old Winchester Hill has extensive chalk grasslands, and it was highlighted on several web-sites as a very good place to see butterflies, among which were silver-spotted skipper, adonis blue and chalk hill blue. All species we'd never seen, so ...
The weather was, let's say, changeable. Some sun, some squally showers, and rather windy throughout the day. At least there were still plenty of flowers, but at times the wind kept the butterflies well down.
Our hope was to see one or two new species. We saw several silver-spotted skippers (first ever skipper for us!), we saw many chalk hill blues, ...
..., and once we found a calm south-facing slope, the adonis blues didn't disappoint either!
And to add to these three new species, we also saw many small heaths. I can't imagine I never saw this species before, but as I'd never positively identified it as such, it does count as a new species.
Happy with our species haul, and just as we got back to where we parked the car, I noticed a small tortoiseshell feeding on marjoram flowers. Whereas this species was one of the most common butterflies when I was a kid in the Netherlands, I can't even remember the last time I saw one in Britain; it must have been years ago ....
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