I saw this perfect male Common Blue up the Welcombe Hills

 This perfect male Common Blue butterfly and I came across each other by the reservoir area up the Welcombe Hills. It's not such a common butterfly nowadays having suffered from successive wet springs. Not so many years ago I photographed a group of 5 of these on a single plant settling down for the night. 

Look how small this one is - not much bigger than the clover leaves. Apart from the small nick in the upper left wing tip he's pristine. He stayed basking in the sun gaining warmth and energy and wasn't bothered by me being near - butterflies can be a bit frustrating to photograph as they lure you then fly off. 

I let him go onto my hand and as I moved to get a better view he kept turning so that his wings stayed in the  the full sun. Silly me didn't put the SD card in the camera so I only got a couple of pics using the camera's limited internal memory.

The blue is so intense and the markings on the antennae so clear. If you enlarge the image you will just be able to make out the fine blue hairs covering the body.

The female has brown and blue colouring and both have the distinctive spots and orange triangular shapes close to the wing edges.

This little chappie made my day.