Large Blue, the video.
I had two targets for Friday, the Large Blue at Collard Hill and Heath Fritillary at Haddon Hill, both in Somerset although an hour's drive apart. I'd been checking the weather forecast all week and it didn't look too promising but as I've said before I won't see anything sat at home so off I went, an early start meaning that I was on site at Collard Hill near Street at 9AM- just as well really as I by 910 I'd found a probably freshly emerged Large Blue. Truth be told it didn't do a lot but that made a change I suppose from them whizzing about and not stopping! It was nice to meet Abbi the volunteer ranger there (appreciated the mention on the blog!) and it's clear that the whole reserve is being well run and looked after by knowledgeable staff; hopefully more people will connect with this wonderful butterfly there.
Update: 13/6/16, from Abbi the vilubteer ranger at Collard Hill re: the video & pics:
" Not sure if you noticed but this one has a tear on one side of it's wing and the other side has a hole. Therefore, this is the butterfly with the huge black border that is almost merging with the black spots on the upperwings, I have been told by the expert David Simcox that this is a rare deformation. A special little butterfly has been filmed there"
Deciding not to wait for the Large Blue to open its wings (which it did after just after I left!) I drove down (or up, very steep in places!) to Exmoor for the Heath Fritillaries. Originally I had planned to do Blean for these but I quite fancied a look for these as I hadn't been to the area before; always good to go somewhere new as it's more of a challenge, especially on your own. As it turned out the butterflies were fairly easy to find once I'd worked out which side of the road they were on and up to a dozen showed well along the edge of the wood at Haddon Hill. I took the shortcut and parked at SS987286, from there go over the obvious stile, turn left and then immediately right, down the hill and along the first small track to the right; if you reach the big track you've gone to far.
Details here: Exmoor Butterflies leaflet
Large Blue:
Heath Fritillary:
