Long-tailed Blue(s)

 

Long-tailed Blues are becoming more common along the south coast, although I believe they are all migrants or from late year broods of those migrants. They do not appear to be able to set up permanent colonies or to survive our winters in any stage of their life cycle. 

I have spent many an hour searching for them. Numbers vary year to year but they do seem to have favoured locations with Shoreham and Whitehawk Hill in Brighton being regular haunts. Find the laval food plant, which both these areas have and you will have a good chance of finding the butterfly.

This year I thought I would try a different approach and convinced Sue to plant Everlasting Pea in one of the flower beds. It produces masses of flowers for picking but it is a bit of a beast and needs regular cutting back to stop it from taking over the whole of the bed.

In the end Sue's preference for a tidy garden got the better of her and she cut it all back a few days ago. I thought nothing more of it until I walked into the kitchen on Tuesday and found a Long-tailed Blue sheltering from the heavy rain outside.

It couldn't go anywhere until the rain stopped so it was easy enough to get a couple of record shots including the near full open wing shot below which you don't see very often.

Later that day there was another sighting on the outside of the kitchen window. This butterfly either carrying a damaged rear wing or possibly a newly emerged specimen where the wing had not pumped up completely.

 

I tried the butterfly on a few of the house plants but it would not stay on any of them, preferring the walls, windows, and work surfaces of the kitchen. 

It seemed quite docile so the next morning when it had stopped raining I took it outside in an attempt to get a picture of it nectaring on a flower. Docile it may have acted but by then it had had enough and it disappeared up high and then away over the garden fence into the distance.

Two is good but the next day with heavy rain again I found a third Long-tailed Blue sheltering in the kitchen. Checking the wing markings it appeared to be a different butterfly. Again it did not seem to like staying on any of the house plants but was happy posing on the windows and work surfaces.

I took a few pictures and when the rain stopped opened the window for it to fly out. 

Later that day there were two small blue butterflies jousting high over the lawn for a couple of minutes. The flight looked like Long-tailed Blues but I cannot be certain and they were moving too fast to pick out any wing markings or signs of the tails.

I got my butterfly net out but there seemed no point in catching them. All the specimens I had caught where in pristine condition. I had my pictures so why risk damaging them with the net.

The everlasting pea has gone and I doubt that Sue would plant it again but I am sure she would not have been able to get all the root out. It is going to be a case of watch this space and then a discussion on the merits of supporting a rare butterfly against a bit of extra work in managing the Everlasting Pea. The only risk - Long-tailed Blue caterpillars may be munching their way through her french beans as I type and that would not be good!