So, to get me started again here are some pictures of Small Blues, Cupido minimus, that I took back in June on my annual trip down to Burnmouth on the Scottish Borders coast.
They are our smallest UK butterfly. They lay their eggs on Kidney Vetch, but don't occur up here in East Lothian, even though Kidney Vetch grows here.
While we were there we also found a few Large Skippers, Ochlodes sylvanus, a butterfly that has recently moved up to East Lothian, although I haven't seen any here this year.
We saw a few other butterflies while we were there. This rather worn Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, has probably flown in from Europe and was enjoying a rest.
It was pleasing to see the coastal slopes were in better condition than when we visited last year. Then there had been weeks of easterly winds, which seemed to have dried out the vegetation, including the all important Kidney Vetch. This year it was growing nicely, so hopefully the Small Blues will benefit and be around in good numbers when I visit again next year.
Hi Nick, this is still in August I hope you see more! But I guess that will be after the winter again, so sad. Come over here you will get tired of chasing them, haha!
ReplyDeleteThat first blue is so bleached under, but dark on top!
Hi Andrea,
DeleteI did see a few more butterflies during the year, but the second half of the season was very poor. We had so much rain that it really impacted on the butterfly numbers. Strangely, though there were quite a few butterflies around towards the end of September. Two species in particular were very numerous, and both used to be very rare here!