Evening everyone, Christine here after another lovely day at Collard; the end of the season is treating us well so far! The Large Blues confounded my expectations and appeared before 10am this morning; a couple of visitors and I wandered to the bottom of the Eastern Glade and had three sightings between us. We also had a great sighting of a Clouded Yellow, standing out against the slopes. As I reached the top of the glade and got onto the main track another Blue flew past.
Still looking good! - Christine Tansey July 2011
It’s taking a little more perseverance each day, but Large Blue sightings continued throughout the day. The morning transect recorded 2 butterflies, both in the Eastern glade, along with my first Gatekeeper of the year. Visitors continued to report Hummingbird Hawkmoths on site, and the Large Blues were a mixture of rather tatty looking individuals as well as some handsome specimens. The afternoon got a little cloudier but remained warm and humid, and the afternoon transect spotted 4 Blues, 3 on the main track. Sightings tailed off mid-afternoon but with some reasonable weather there should be a few around over the next couple of days.
A tatty Blue for comparison - Christine Tansey July 2011
I hope many of you managed to see Countryfile on Sunday night, when Jeremy Thomas was discussing Large Blues at Collard Hill and David Simcox explaining the reintroduction project in the Cotswolds. You can catch up with it here. There might be a slight delay in the updates over the next two days, but I’ll do my best to get them up as soon as possible. The Large Blues might be slowing down at Collard but the Six-spot Burnet moths are increasing day by day, maybe this adventurous pupa will have emerged when I’m back on the hill on Wednesday!
Six-spot Burnet Moth pupa on our sign!
