I hate to be corrective Paul, but your butterfly is a Large Skipper. The key is the hooked tips to the antennae that are brown above and black below. This is far less marked in a Small Skipper as your recent picture shows. The inky black tips of Essex Skipper antennae are rounded rather like cotton buds. I had this lesson a couple of years ago from Dr Jim Asher, Chair of Butterfly Conservation UTB branch, but I still often find brown skippers tricky to separate in the field..
I hate to be corrective Paul, but your butterfly is a Large Skipper. The key is the hooked tips to the antennae that are brown above and black below. This is far less marked in a Small Skipper as your recent picture shows. The inky black tips of Essex Skipper antennae are rounded rather like cotton buds. I had this lesson a couple of years ago from Dr Jim Asher, Chair of Butterfly Conservation UTB branch, but I still often find brown skippers tricky to separate in the field..
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