Common blue butterfly

(photo: Simon Harding)

Here's a common blue butterfly taking nectar from a buttercup.  The males are blue on top but speckled black and white and orange on the underwings, which makes them hard to spot if they are feeding on cow parsley or hogweed flowers. 

The females are usually brown with just a tinge of blue near the wing base, and orange and black dots on the wing margins.

The best time to see them is in the morning or evening, when they bask in the weaker sunshine with their wings spread flat instead of clipped shut over their bodies.

The caterpillars feed on black medick, rest harrow and, most commonly at Filnore, bird's foot trefoil.