At one point, I was trying to photograph one that had landed when it got buzzed by another, much darker fritillary. This one was much more cooperative and easy to identify as the even rarer False Heath Fritillary, which was totally unexpected.
Things didn't stop there, though, as I also found my first Black Hairstreak and a Pearly Heath, which I'd not seen for five years. I had started the day in a flower-filled field containing several Black-veined Whites but, when I returned there later on, only blues remained. I thus took some pictures of them instead to check whether or not they were all Common Blues, and didn't think I'd found anything different. Examining my pictures on the way back home, however, I came across one with spots on the upperwing. I wasn't aware of any blues with spotting on the upperwing and originally dismissed it as an aberrant Common Blue female since they can be extremely variable. It was only when I was going through my field guide to tally the day's list of 18 butterfly species, I noticed the pattern was more typical of the coppers, and discovered I'd photographed a Sooty Copper without even realising!
