Richard Williamson's weekly nature notes

You have probably never seen one in your life. But if you walked over proper old downland turf '“ springy, full of thyme and squinancywort and sheeps fescue grass '“ ancient turf that has never been ploughed since the Tudors, in the last three weeks of April, 10 to one these tiny butterflies were what you thought were some sort of fly.

They stay close to the ground, usually three inches above the tallest blades of grass, and they settle after flying about eight yards.

They are one of our smallest butterflies.

I think they're my favourite of the 56 or so species we have in the UK. It used to be called the grizzle, simply because of the grey. It is one of the eight species of skipper found in the UK.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette May 16