For several reason, except for one visit to Hillier Gardens last month, we've not yet been able to go out butterflying this year, and we felt that really had to change! So we decided to go to Noar Hill, in the hope of seeing a couple more species than the nine we'd seen so far, and also with crossed fingers for seeing Dukes of Burgundy, which would be a new species for us ...
Almost immediately after entering the reserve, we saw a few tiny butterflies flitting about: small blues! We'd only seen this species once, and then very briefly, so it was great to be able to spend a bit more time with this really cute butterfly. One landed on Irma's hand, and a second one provided me with a real photographic challenge by landing on my camera ....
And then we saw a few dingy skippers, a new species for us! We saw several spread throughout the reserve, but they wouldn't settle long enough for a photo, sadly ...
As we explored a hollow which really trapped the warmth from the sun, ...
Besides the species already mentioned, there were also many small heaths about and we saw several green hairstreaks. Here's today's full table, with the first new species of 2022 (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):
