As lots of you will know this year has been tipped to be a once in a decade one for an invasion of painted lady butterflies. There have been huge numbers arriving on the east coast, but locally it has seemed pretty unremarkable so far. Or at least it had, until this afternoon when I suddenly saw 19 in a small area just south of Goosander Hide along with several red admiral and peacock.
One of at least six painted lady on one clump of fleabane near Goosander Hide
A a rule such an arrival of painted lady would have been the stand-out butterfly event of the day, but no so this time. That accolade goes, by some margin, to an extraordinary and most unexpected sighting of a male chalkhill blue. This is a chalk downland butterfly that has caterpillars that feed on horse-shoe vetch, quite what it was doing beside an old gravel pit on the edge of the New Forest is beyond me. The nearest colony must be several miles away on the chalk north of Fordingbridge I would guess.
chalkhill blue (male) – not the greatest shot but a really good reserve record.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
Excellent. We’ve had an increasing number of Painted Lady Butterflies on our Tennis court Buddleia bush in the past 3 days….;-)