After the glory of a male Holly Blue with open wings, described in the last post, I've now been lucky enough to find a female of the species which was willing to offer me a similar if smaller glimpse. Here she is, with the soft greyish-blue shading on the outer wing, as I waited patiently by a hedge in north Oxford, murmuring explanations to curious passers-by in an undertone which luckily didn't send her skittering off elsewhere.
Hope I haven't overdone the pictures but it is such a treat to find a Holly Blue prepared to show more than the lovely, but very common, view of the chalky underwings. Here they are below, when the butterfly moved to examine the hedge's flowers after a thorough inspection of - I imagine - aphid and other small insect traces on the leaves.
The weather has been up and down this month but that hasn't stopped me lighting the trap now and then, and I have a much more handsome robin in attendance this year. I was never very found of its regular relation in past years, which looked like a bruiser and veteran of fights with other males. This one has a lovely ruff in addition to the famous redbreast.
I wanted an interesting moth to come on my younger son's birthday and the Yellowtail below obliged me. It isn't rare but this one posed in a very satisfactory way even if the yellow which gives it its name is completely obscured.
Other visitors recently have included the Scalloped Oak below, a very pretty Least Carpet, both forms of Riband Wave - a shaded ribbon and a clear one - lots of modestly opalesque Mother of Pearls and a nice combination of another, paler Least Carpet and a Lime-speck Pug, the last known to me from its excellent mimicry camouflage as the Bird Poo Moth.
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