Two of our rarest and most beautiful butterflies are now flying

The small blue is our smallest butterfly as you can see from my photo. They are small and amazingly hard to follow as they dash from leaf to leaf. Small Blues are also amazingly local, often being found only in an area of a few square feet, centred on the food plant which is kidney vetch. The Duke of Burgundy is our smallest and fastest fritillary, moving almost faster than the eye can follow. Males often bask with their wings open. Sadly they are fast heading into extinction and colony after colony is vanishing never to be seen again.