A great day but no large blues

It was another great summer’s day up on Collard Hill, although try as I might I couldn’t find any large blues! It was a reasonably cloudy day however, so any stragglers might have been hiding away waiting for some sun.
Other butterflies are on the up however, gatekeepers have boomed in the past couple of days, the ringlets are still numerous and fresh second brood common blue and brown argus butterflies are everywhere. I keep checking the small skippers on the off chance one will be an Essex skipper, but so far all I’ve seen have been small! Large skippers are still around too, and occasionally stop briefly for photographs.

Large Skipper © India Wedge

It has been a great experience being able to spend so much time on Collard, it’s been a privilege to be able to observe and photograph the large blues, and I’ll definitely have to come back in future years to see these wonderful butterflies again. It’s hard to choose favourites but the large blue has to be nearing becoming my favourite UK butterfly!

Large blue resting out of the heat © India Wedge

 

The large blues are hard to find!

Finding the large blues was quite difficult today, I saw only three in the whole day and visitors were looking for a while before most eventually found the odd one resting or nectaring on wild thyme. Most of the left over large blues are looking pretty ragged now, so here’s a throwback to when the pristine looking large blues were flying a couple of weeks ago…

© India Wedge

I have tomorrow and Tuesday off and by Wednesday I’m not sure how many there will to be find, if any! But I’ll definitely be looking hard for them, and hoping to get a straggler or two. If anyone gets up to Collard on Monday or Tuesday, do leave a comment here if you manage to find any!

There is still a lot about on the hill even if the large blues are dropping off, there are a couple of these wonderful micro moths flying at the moment, Oncocera semirubrella, the colours of some moths are truly incredible!

Oncocera semirubella 

I also stumbled across the awesome tiny micro moth Nemophora cupriacella, there aren’t many records at all for this moth in Somerset so I was glad to find it; it’s wings were remarkably metallic and really caught the light

Nemophora cupriacella © Graeme Lyons

I’ve seen a few more micro moths but most have remained unidentified as I left my micro moth ID book in Norwich; however these two particularly caught my eye, so I had to put a name to them!
I will post again on Wednesday, hopefully reporting a couple of long lasting large blues, but who knows!

Approaching the end of the season

It does appear from the past couple of days that we are approaching the end of the large blue season for this year, today it was tricky to find the large blues and I had ~6 across the day today when the sun broke through the clouds. It was another warm day today with a few clouds making an appearance in the afternoon, meaning there was a lot flying  all over the hill. The hummingbird hawk-moths continue to put on a show, I saw about 8 today mostly hovering and nectaring on brambles but a few ovipositing on lady’s bedstraw.

A couple of large blues were getting in some final egg laying today, and having a cursory look at some thyme plants I found a lot of eggs which is good news for next years season! I had another go at trying to photograph an egg, which is still as difficult as when I first tried it a few weeks ago! But I managed to get a couple of pictures that show the intricate detail of the egg of the large blue. This close-up is pushing the ability of the macro lens I use right to the limit, so the resolution isn’t great but I’m very happy to have captured the details of this egg.

Large blue egg © India Wedge

It’s been a fantastic experience being able to follow these butterflies all the way through their season, it has given me the chance to be able to observe these wonderful butterflies and learn their behaviours and the patterns they follow. It has also given me the chance to take, almost too many, photographs of many different individuals, mating pairs, ovipositing females and of course the eggs.

Tomorrow is looking like another sunny summers day, and hopefully there will be a few large blues still around to seek out. I’ve unfortunately had to pick up a reasonable amount of litter in the past few days, so do make sure to take any litter back home with you so that others can enjoy Collard in all its beauty!

Spot the large blue © India Wedge

 

 

A few too many clouds

It warmed up more slowly today, meaning the large blues, and most other butterflies, were slow to get flying. A reasonably thick layer of cloud took a while to move off, but once it did, the sun started to warm things up and the butterflies were up and about. I saw ~7 large blues over the day today, and managed to track a couple down when the clouds came over that stopped long enough for a few pictures.

A slow morning for the large blues © India Wedge

There’s been a change in species composition across the site in the past few days, with ringlets becoming ever more populous, small skippers increasing also, and I had a couple of firsts for the year today as well with gatekeeper and also a stunningly fresh brown argus.

Brown argus © India Wedge

Gatekeeper © India Wedge

There seems to have been an increase in the number of damselflies and dragonflies up on the hill as well, I’ve seen plenty of common blue damselflies, black-tailed skimmers, broad-bodied chasers and today I added ruddy darter to that list, a female clattered it’s way out of the long grass infront of me and rested up on a piece of grass to soak up some sun.

Ruddy darter © India Wedge

I would expect the large blues to become harder to track down by the day from now on as they decline towards the end of their flight season, but as you can see from the above pictures there is still plenty on offer at Collard to occupy you whilst looking for the large blues. This weekend is looking pretty cloudy, so be prepared to do some searching if you’re after the large blues, I’ll be there both days and will be trying to track them down as well and hopefully there’ll be still a few about to find!

 

Enjoying the sun

The run of sunny days continues! There were plenty of butterflies making the most of the sun and warm temperatures; there were still large blues flying today, over the day I counted about 10 flying over the whole site. The next couple of days will show more conclusively whether the butterflies have passed their peak or not, but I suspect they have! However other butterfly species are still out in force; the small heaths are still flying in basically all weather, as are the meadow browns.

Small Heath © India Wedge

There was also a lot of hummingbird hawk-moth’s around today, I counted five and people were finding them all over the place! I tried to get an alright photo but it was proving challenging and the only in focus picture I got was this one, which definitely isn’t winning any awards!

Spot the hummingbird hawkmoth! (© India Wedge)

Tomorrow’s weather is looking much the same as today, so getting to the hill early will be your best chance to see the large blues not in flight; later on in the day when it heats up they won’t be stopping much, and are more likely to be zipping past you at high speed!

Another warm day!

Today was another warm day, not quite as hot as it has been (thankfully!) but still sunny, warm and good butterfly weather. I had 14 large blues on my morning transect and 7 on my afternoon transect; the impression I got from the day overall was that peak numbers had passed and a slow decline in numbers of large blues will be seen over the next couple of weeks.
The sunny patches led to a fair few large blues flying around, there was a fair amount of tatty looking individuals and only a few fresher looking butterflies.

© India Wedge

There is still plenty of other butterfly species around the hill at the moment, there has been a boost of ringlets and small skippers in the past few days and the large number of marbled whites and painted lady’s remain flying and gliding about the hill. Today at least two hummingbird hawkmoths were seen hovering around the flowers, but they have so far evaded my camera!

Small tortoiseshells fly over every now and again

The week ahead looks great weather wise, with plenty of sun and reasonably hot temperatures, so there should be plenty of butterflies to see!

A cooler day

Today was a good butterfly day, with 20 large blues seen on my afternoon transect, the highest number I’ve had on a transect so far! The cloudy and cooler weather meant the large blues were slightly more difficult to find but when one was found, they posed nicely for photographs and generally allowed viewers a longer look than they have done on the hot, sunny days.

The elusive wings open shot (© India Wedge)

Today I also saw two large blues wheeling around in the sky, and after few minutes they paired up and began mating; they stayed together for about 40 minutes before flying off and separating. They posed nicely for plenty of people to see and photograph this amazing sight!

Mating large blues (© India Wedge)

Following on from the mating I saw a female large blue laying eggs, I like to think it was the same one I saw mating but who knows! There was plenty of large blue action to be had today, and it’s looking like there’s a few more days to come with the same weather as today so do come along and have a look at these wonderful butterflies!

Egg laying female large blue (© India Wedge)

 

A scorcher of a day!

It was another hot day up on the hill today, and there were plenty of large blues zipping about busy nectaring, mating and egg-laying. I had 7 on my morning transect and 14 on my afternoon transect, which I did later in the day when it had cooled slightly! The hottest part of the day is 2-3pm, and there isn’t much flying about at all, a couple of hardy large blues brave the heat but stop often on grass stems. I managed to follow one to wear it landed and get a couple of pictures, but that was the only LB I managed to photograph today, the rest were too quick!

Large blue sitting out of the heat (© India Wedge)

Tomorrow looks like we’re getting a bit of a break from the heat, with more clouds forecast and lower temperatures of about 23°C, so if photography is your game, tomorrow morning looks good for you!

It can be tricky to tell a large blue from a common blue and a lot of people rely on the upper wing patterning of the large blue to differentiate, so I thought I’d post a direct comparison of the underwings. The underwing of the two is quite different; above is a common blue (left) and a large blue (right); the large blue has no orange on the underwing at all and has a paler base colour compared to the common blue. Some of the common blues on the hill are quite worn at the moment, so the orange is less obvious and sometimes it takes a second look to be sure it’s a large blue you’re looking at!

The upperwing of the large blue is the most obvious difference between large and common, but only when you can see it! Below is common on the left and large on the right.

 

A hot day with plenty to see

It was definitely a scorcher today, highest temperatures on the hill was 31°C! I had good counts of large blues today, they were flying all over the site despite a pretty strong wind. The butterflies do fly less frequently in the heat of the day, so are less likely to be seen then, but there were plenty about early on in the day and after 4pm when the day had cooled slightly.
The numbers of large blues should be at their peak in the next few days, so if you’re planning a trip down, this week looks to be the best for you.

Unfortunately I neglected to charge my camera batteries last night so was camera-less for the day, however, it was nice to just enjoy the butterflies rather than trying to get pictures but the batteries are currently charging so there will be more pictures tomorrow!

I put out more clearwing lures today, firstly I tried for Orange-tailed clearwing; the food plant for this moth is wayfaring tree, a type of viburnam. In about 30 seconds I had five flying around the lure, these are amazing looking moths, and are under-recorded in general as they’re hard to find without the pheromone lures. I also went back to see Six-belted clearwing again and had about 10 to the lure in five minutes!

Orange-tailed clearwing (Synanthedon andrenaeformis)

Red-belted clearwing (Synanthedon myopaeformis)

I hope to find a few more species on the hill such as yellow-legged and possibly red-tipped clearwings, it always surprises me how small they are!
Tomorrow is looking equally as hot as today, so make sure you bring enough water it’s easy to underestimate how much you need! I hope you enjoy the sunny weekend!

*LOST PROPERTY* I got a wallet containing membership cards handed to me today, for the WWT, RSPB and the National Trust under the name Mr & Mrs Paul Bennett, if these are yours you can come and collect them whenever I am up on the hill, or leave a comment and I’ll get in touch about putting them in the post.

 

Learning to identify grasses

Today I had the opportunity to take part in a grassland ID course put on by the National Trust, it was really interesting to learn more about what grasses occupy the calcareous grasslands of Collard and the surrounding area. It was great to learn which grass species are indicators of a healthy and natural grassland and which are indicators that more management might be needed. A couple of the positive indicator species are quaking grass (left) and upright brome, (right) both of which are abundant on Collard hill!

The quaking grass is aptly named, as any slight bit of wind and it starts quaking, just as the name would suggest.
Wild flower ID is something I’ve never really focused on but I’m starting to learn whilst being up on the hill, it’s very useful information to know, and was really interesting to learn from the experts.

In the afternoon we headed up to Collard to try and spot some large blues, the heat was starting to build, and the butterflies were very flighty; but luckily enough we managed to spot one landing on a clump of wild thyme and people managed to get very good views!

It was a tad windy for the blues today, and quite frequently you could be watching one and suddenly it would get taken by the wind to the other side of the hill! The next couple of days are looking very hot, so it’s probably best to get to the hill earlier as the large blues tend to stop flying when it gets hotter in the afternoon, and can be harder to see.

Also remember to wear sunscreen and bring plenty of water, the site gets very hot and there’s not much shade, the big oak tree at the top of the hill is a god-send as it provides some much needed shade!