Old Winchester Hill, one final time

This year, we've been butterflying at Old Winchester Hill earlier this month, and in July, and we also went there in August last year. When we went there a few weeks ago, we saw a record of butterfly species (19!), but among those, two species that we saw last year were standing out by their absence: adonis blue and silver-spotted skipper. Given the forecast of a warm sunny day with light winds, how about trying one final time and see those two species, which we haven't seen so far this year?

Although we drove there with sunshine, once we arrived at the Hill, there was thick wall-to-wall cloud cover, it was chilly, and quite windy .... In terms of butterflies, it was eerily quiet, just some meadow browns and a small heath active ...

Walking along the south-facing slope of the hill was so strange, not a single butterfly out .... 

But then the cloud cover broke, the sun came out, and temperature went up, and as if someone flicked a switch, the butterflies came out to play!

First the chalk hill blues ...

... then the silver-spotted skippers ...

... and then, finally, the adonis blues! The electric blue flash coming off their wings when the sun hits them at just the right angle is something I tried to capture in the photos, but I only succeeded partially.

In addition, many fresh-looking brimstones and many small tortoiseshells! So, mission accomplished, and here's the usual table (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

And finally ... we've visited Old Winchester Hill four times now, and combining the species lists of these four visits, we've seen a total of 25 species there! This may well have been our last full day of butterflying, but we'll definitely go back there next year again.