Jenna and I had had this trip booked in for the last couple of weeks, as soon as we heard that the Long-tailed blues were on the wing in Brighton, Sussex. The added bonus was that five Queen of Spain fritillaries had also been found in Hampshire, so we decided to visit both places and make a day of it.
We left Cheshire at 5:00am and made good progress, arriving in Brighton around 10:00am. We parked the car up and headed towards the TV antenna, where we soon met a few people who were already on site.
It wasn't long before we had our first sighting of a Long-tailed blue, and eventually five were seen bombing around. Hardly any would settle, though, so I could only get record shots when they landed briefly.
I've always wanted to visit this site, and it was nice to see a good crowd of people who had travelled from all over the country, like ourselves, to see this butterfly. After getting some good views, we had some lunch. Moving on from here, we headed to Monk Sherborne, hoping to get Jenna a new butterfly for her list, the Queen of Spain fritillary.
After a couple of hours, we arrived on site and took the short walk to where they had been seen. As soon as we arrived, Jenna noticed one sitting on the gravel track, and it was showing really well.
Over the next hour, we managed to get good views of two individuals. Jenna was made up as she had never seen one before, so it was a new one for her list. After some good views, we headed home following another good day in the field, with a few more lifers added to the list.