I saw a Small Skipper butterfly in Rowley Fields

Walking through the long grass in Rowley Fields today I caught the flicker of brown out of the corner of my eye. It circled me and then landed a few feet away in the sunshine.

Lucky me. The first Small Skipper of the year. 
I've a 1948 book by Vere Temple, Butterflies and Moths in Britain. More than a field guide, it has some interesting details about the life cycles of these creatures. The Small Skipper female for example, 'evinces the tenderest care for her eggs, which she deposits for protection within the sheath of the grass. The young caterpillar, which hatches in August, sensibly makes provision against the cold by wrapping itself in a cocoon  in which it hibernates through the winter. Emerging in May, it chooses a grass blade, across which it spins silken cords that contract when dry and draw the edges of the leaf together in the form of a tube. In this snug shelter it lives until the time arrives for it to spin its pupal cocoon, coming out only to feed'.


Butterflies aren't just amazing because of the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly but their individual and sometimes complex lives. This little creature had gone through that whole process and will now seek a mate for the whole process to start again.