A cunning trade-off yesterday saw Penny and I buying towels (and playing Wordle) at John Lewis on the edge of High Wycombe, and then driving the five miles to Yoesden Bank nature reserve off Bledlow ridge to see if the Adonis Blues were about.
We have paid several annual visits to this little Paradise whose conditions exactly suit the ravishing butterfly by providing unimproved chalk downland rich in horseshoe vetch, the caterpillar's foodplant, and plentiful sources of nectar for adult butterflies. The Chilterns form the current Northern range of the species, though perhaps it will copy other butterflies and moths in current climate conditions by moving North.
Oh, and it helps to have sun, which duly shone down yesterday while we pottered round the long triangular field which is the heart of the reserve. We saw at least 50 of the vivid blue males and as many again of the brown-coloured females and in one case a vigorously courting couple, shown above and later flying while actually attached. Photography was tricky in the bright light, which makes it almost impossible to see what the lens is showing, and the blues tend to move on rapidly from each nectar stop. But we both got some reasonable pictures.
Some of them show the ravishing, almost fluorescent sheen on the wings and we found one rather comatose specimen, above, which allowed a closer look at the metallic gleam of its wings, battered and torn in this case but glorious. The two photos below are sadly out of focus but I have added them to show the shine.
The Adonises were so all-absorbing that it was difficult to pay attention to the many Small Heaths, Hedge Browns and occasional Vanessid butterflies were are also populous on Yoesden Bank. But I followed a milky-blue Chalkhill Blue male for a while before getting this photo below of his potential mate.
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