A late afternoon walk up and around Battlesbury Hill in search of the Essex Skipper.
As they’re virtually indistinguishable from Small Skippers, I looked for any Skipper and photographed it, ideally from a “head on” perspective. Afterwards, I would check the images, paying attention to the antennae.
All except one were definitely Small Skippers, the other being provisionally identified by myself as an Essex Skipper, but for confirmation I emailed the Wiltshire County Butterfly Recorder for his view on it. I also sent it to Fuzz for his thoughts.
The verdict was…an Essex Skipper! Yay!