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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3589043" data-attributes="member: 12449">3 July. Ten-minute Wonder.Overcast virtually all day, to the skies I kept glancing for signs of blue. Mid-afternoon, fortunately just when I had a gap in my schedule, a hint of brightness offered hope. Taking advantage and hoping for some late Woodland Browns, off I scooted to a locality on the edge of the city where this species frequently resides. Arrived just as a moderate-sized patch of blue maneuvered to cast valuable rays of sun across the grassy bank ...immediate results, a White Admiral emerging from adjacent pines to land on the track, a couple of Ringlets settling in the grass. In reality, Woodland Browns were probably a couple of weeks past their peak, so I was not too sure of the likelihood of success in this brief window of sun, but species number three was precisely what I wanted, a Woodland Brown! Slightly faded and a bit ragged around the wings, it was nonetheless most welcome.My first White-letter Hairstreak of the year also active, plus a few Pearly Heaths and both Large Skipper and Small Skipper, but all of ten minutes later, the sun again fell behind cloud and the show was over, butterflies vanishing.BALTIC YEAR LIST    79. White-letter Hairstreak    80. Woodland Brown 4 July. Chasing the Sun.With cloud and rain persisting, the forecasts suggested central and western parts of Lithuania stood the best chances of some sun this day, even then probably only in the afternoon ...not really conducive with catching up with the last of the outstanding June butterflies! Decided upon the forests of the Kaunas area, hoping for some luck with either Scarce Fritillary or Tufted Marbled Skipper, two of the last species that occur in Lithuania that I have yet to see.Highest likelihood of sun seemed to be from about 3 p.m., but I arrived at about 11.30 a.m. anyhow and was fortunately rewarded with a couple of hours of high cloud and sunny spells. Not too bad at all, quite a number of butterflies active, remarkably including at least 35 Woodland Browns, all rather faded. In this first hour, totalled 18 species of butterflies, Ringlets and Meadow Browns most common, but also a Large Copper, quite a number of Lesser Marbled Fritillaries and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries, one False Heath Fritillary and, new for the year, one Purple Emperor and better still two Ilex Hairstreaks. No Scarce Fritillary or Tufted Marbled Skipper though!!Then came down the rain, heavy downpours sending me scurrying back to the car. Cloud and rain basically lasted the rest of the day, though a brief period of brightness did get a few butterflies back onto the wings, a second Large Copper included. Butterfly of the day however was found quietly sitting upon a flower top – my first for six years, a splendid Black Hairstreak. Didn't have my camera with me, but managed a couple of record shots with my mobile phone ...top class species for me!BALTIC YEAR LIST    81. Ilex Hairstreak    82. Black Hairstreak    83. Purple Emperor 5 July. Tufted Marbled Skipper!Really should take my camera to work - two-hour gap and sunshine saw me nipping out to an area of meadow a little east of the capital. Had thoughts of finding perhaps a Large Heath in adjacent damp areas, but did even better - a Tufted Marbled Skipper! Had been looking for this very species in the forestlands of central Lithuania the day before, but hadn't expected to stumble across one just 20 minutes from Vilnius.Was actually a very good two hours, a good two dozen species on the wing, White Admiral and Purple Emperor amongst them, 16 Woodland Browns too, but without doubt the star was the Tufted Marbled Skipper - feeding in flower meadow adjacent to mixed woodland, this was actually quite a bit bigger than I had expected, certainly a step up from the otherwise fairly similar Marbled Skipper (this latter species never having occurred in Lithuania).As with the Black Hairstreak of the day before, fortunately it was sedentary enough to get reasonable photographs via the mobile phone - but sure will be going back to try to relocate for better shots!BALTIC YEAR LIST    84. Tufted Marbled Skipper</blockquote>

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