Blue summer

It's been three, long years since I last added a new species of butterfly to my Belgian list.  Having already seen 81 of the 90 or so regularly-occuring species, the remainder are all rare, extremely localised and most have very short flying times, meaning a carefully planned trip to the right place at just the right time is required to have a chance of connecting with one.  Yesterday, I made an expedition to the Turnhoutse Vennengebied north of Turnhout for Alcon Blue, which is only found in three or four places in Belgium.  There were lots of Silver-studded Blues flying around trying to confuse me but, as soon as I spotted an Alcon Blue, I knew it had to be that since it was much bigger.

I only saw the one adult although I did also find two eggs on a gentian, the caterpillar's foodplant. 
Two short walks in the forest last week were much bluer, though, since I got to see a Kingfisher entering its nesthole with a fish and spent a while photographing damselflies, including Azure Bluet and this Small Red-eyed Damselfly.