Still no Large Blues!
Today once again looked like it might be the day, a gorgeously misty and dewy morning gave way to the sunniest day I’ve seen yet at Collard, there was barely a cloud in the sky and hardly any wind at all.
Perfect flight weather brought out all number of invertebrates in addition to our wealth of butterflies. In particular, Mayflies were out in huge numbers today. A mating pair flew into my face at one point which was uhh… an experience.
Butterfly species seen today included: Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Marbled White, Painted Lady, Clouded Yellow, Common Blue and Large White. Unfortunately I’ve not seen the Small Copper since it’s first appearance, which makes me sad as it’s one of the most striking species of butterfly I’ve had the pleasure of seeing.
Today’s other points of interest:
I spotted some cool fungi growing on our spectacular Oak near the viewpoint & bench.
Whilst I was resting in the shade of said Oak, I was visited by a pleasant little Chaffinch.
I also spent a hilarious 15 minutes chasing around after the ridiculously mobile Hummingbird Hawk-Moth we’ve got on site:
… It didn’t go too well.
…
Seriously these things are fast.
This is pretty much the best I could do.
I’m so sorry everyone.
Other than that there’s really very little to report from today, we’re still waiting with baited breath for the first Large Blue to emerge.
Thanks for reading!
Jono, The Large Blue Ranger
Today’s excellent picture submissions are from John Aldridge, you too can get your best pictures featured on the Blog if you submit them to Collard.hill@gmail.com. Unfortunately it seems that wordpress’ library feature seems to ruin the image quality so we’ll try to work on this!
The National Trust's Large Blue Blog 