Small Blue

It was all quite exciting. The sort of thing that would probably be described as "the drama of nature in the raw" on television. I was sitting in the hide at College Lake with a couple of friends watching a Greenshank and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers pottering about on the mud, when two more Greenshank flew in, their loud clear calls ringing out above the racket of the breeding Lapwings. Suddenly there was mayhem and at first it was hard to see what was going on. The Lapwing all rose as one, screaming furiously and then out of the chaos of tumbling, wheeling birds a Sparrowhawk emerged carrying an unfortunate Lapwing chick in it's claws. When the dust settled and the Lapwing had calmed down we realised that all the Greenshank had fled the scene of the crime in panic. After all that excitement we decided it was time to look for a few Butterflies and I had a feeling that it would be worth searching for Small Blues even though they are not usually out until mid May. Sure enough we found two of these inconspicuous and rather drab butterflies, sheltering from the cold nagging wind at the base of the bare chalk cliffs which are already festooned with dense clumps of bright yellow Horseshoe Vetch Hippocrepis comosa. These two were males, dusted with silvery blue scales, spending their lives loafing on vegetation waiting to compete for passing females. Sadly these little butterflies are in decline in Britain with many of their colonies small and isolated.

Male Small Blue Cupido minmus at College Lake (30/04/2011)

Male Small Blue Cupido minmus at College Lake (30/04/2011)

Male Small Blue Cupido minmus on Birdsfoot Trefoil at College Lake