I paid a visit to Daneway banks near Cirencester this morning to see if I could tick off large blue butterfly for the year. The forecast had originally predicted sun and cloud but there was no sun at all by the time I reached the reserve, however it was quite warm and barely a breath of wind.
Having walked up the steep hill to the entrance I saw a scattering of people with cameras; that would certainly make it easier to locate any butterflies as it would be obvious if they were all staring at a particular spot!
I followed the path to where I expected to find some large blues and started speaking to someone who said that about 4 had been seen that morning. He then said that if I quickly followed the path a bit further, there was a butterfly with open wings which I might be able to see. As I passed a tall bush I could see a handful of people with cameras and made my way over to them. As I had been told, a large blue was perched on a leaf with open wings and I found a vantage point which enabled a few photos. However after a minute or so it closed its wings again and remained in that pose for the rest of the time I was there! A few people came up behind and took photos of the closed wings and decided to wait to see if it would open its wings again, however, any early brightness had gone and it didn't look as if the sun would reappear anytime soon.
I got chatting to a lady who said that she had travelled down from Stafford by herself using public transport ( 3 trains and a bus) to see the large blues! However, she had joined the group of photographers just after the butterfly had shut its wings! She did have another couple of hours before her bus was due, so I hope the sun came out sufficiently for her to see the open wings. She also told me she had just found her first small blue, again with closed wings.
Despite wandering back through the reserve, I couldn't find any more large blues or people that had seen any so decided to return to the car, at least I had managed a couple of photos even if I only saw one individual large blue.
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