Blue butterflies

Two fairly 'common' blue butterflies in the Peterborough area are the Chalkhill Blue and the Common Blue. The top 3 photos show the Chalkhill (male, female, male) and the bottom 4 show the Common (female, female, male, male). These blues have a distinct difference in appearance between the sexes, with the male being the 'blue' one, while the female tends to be brown, although the Common Blue female can sometimes have more blue in the upper wing as is shown in photo 5.

This year seems to have been a good one for Chalkhill Blues with hundreds of thousands of these 'flutters' being present at individual sites. At Barnack Hills and Holes, where these photos were taken, I counted up to 450 before losing count (not thousands, but certainly good numbers). A good news story in a year when butterfly numbers have been low, to say the least.

Blue on pooh

The picture most people have of a butterfly is one perching daintily on a flower of a Buddleia or other sweet smelling plant, happily taking nectar. What you don't think of is one sitting on a pile of dog pooh, quite happily taking the salts from said excrement. It shatters the illusion somewhat, but many butterflies do it, the Purple Emperor, for example, is very fond of feeding on something extremely undesirable such as corpses of animals and also pooh of all sorts.

I visited Barnack Hills and Holes the other day and was greeted by clouds of Chalkhill Blues. There were hundreds of these lovely blue butterflies flying around in the sun and feeding on knapweeds and scaibiouses. Whilst revelling in this far too rare sight I trod in some dog pooh! Lovely, I thought, why can't dog owners clear up after their pets?! However, I was soon finding little blue butterflies coming down to feed on this 'delightful' deposit. Cleaning the foul smelling muck from my shoe, I proceeded to snap away.

I didn't see any females feeding this way, what does that say?! Shatters the picture somewhat, doesn't it?

Blue is the colour

All photo`s were taken using hand-held Canon Powershot A640

The Chalkhill Blue butterfly is one that is characteristic of warm chalk and limestone hillsides, but has declined in numbers over the last century due to its downland habitat being ploughed up to `improve` the land. The species is, however still fairly widespread and stable in the south of England and in some areas the populations can number many hundreds. One such place is Barnack Hills and Holes NNR, close to Peterborough.

The above photo`s were taken at the weekend on a rare period of sunshine. The number of males in flight easily numbered 70+, but there were only a few females apparent. The male is a beautiful silvery-blue (as above), but the females are a brown colour with chequered wing fringes. It is a butterfly of high Summer, flying in a single brood from mid-July to September.