Venus Pool - Aberrant Meadow Brown ab. alba

Some nice Butterflies about today but this aberrant Meadow Brown was the most interesting? A nice spot by Dave Chapman as we searched in vain for a wayward Clouded Yellow...

To get your eye in, here's a normal Meadow Brown...

And here is ab. alba from today...

The usual tawny patch on the forewings is replaced by white, as seen here front and rear,

Sadly no open upperwing images were possible and eventually after skulking in the depths of the grass it flew into the seed crop and was lost to view...

Never mind, another aberration for the collection :-)

Porthellick - Ruff plus a few insects!

Spent a bit of time on terra firma today and this Ruff is spending quite a lot of time at Porthellick pool but was always distant as the pic will testify!

The Speckled Woods here (Pararge aegeria ssp insula) are more striking then on the Uk mainland with a much more 'orange' colour to them...

The Scilly Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina ssp cassiteridum) is another Scilly special.

Lucky to have this Emperor Dragonfly perched outside the Sussex hide (good spot Richard!)

And getting past their best, male and female Common Blue...

Nice to have the sun shining too!