Last week I paid an unsuccessful visit to the reserve at Daneways where for the past few years I've always managed to see at least one of the rare large blue butterfly. I also heard that only one was seen by a friend's son last weekend and that had been a quick fly past . Therefore today I decided to head off to Rodborough Common and see if I could find any there as this is a site where they have been reintroduced in recent years although I've never looked for them.
I'd heard that the large blues are usually found in the same sheltered area where I look for spring butterflies so I started to walk in that direction. I soon saw meadow browns, marbled whites and small heaths but from the top of the common I couldn't see much butterfly activity down in the gully . Carefully negotiating the steep bank down to the bottom I looked around but saw nothing. Then suddenly a blue butterfly appeared and I realised it had the darker markings of a large blue. Success! It eventually settled on a leaf of a small bush. Wings tightly closed- this is typical of a large blue in sunny weather - it sat there for long enough for me to take some photos before taking off and resettling on a grassy stem. It did this several times but I never saw its open wings However its larger size, underwing pattern and glimpse of blue upper wings showing through confirmed the butterfly's identity.
If was the only individual I saw today but at least it confirmed their presence at this site.
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