Coney Banks and Small Blues

The target species today was the Small Blue - surely I would finally find this butterfly which has eluded me for so long?

Yes! In exactly the expected places along the base of the slope there were at least seven individuals spotted, probably most, if not all, males, as this is where they are supposed to gather, for example basking on grass stems, waiting for the innocent (?) females to arrive, mate and then depart to explore clumps of kidney vetch, their only known food plant in the UK.

This is one of the males, that posed, first with its wings closed, then gradually opened.

Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea Lathyrus latifolius was present on much of the slope, but I missed the unusual Yellow Vetchling, Lathyrus aphaca.