Long-tailed Blue

 

A couple of years ago we planted Everlasting Pea in the garden in the hope of attracting the Long-tailed Blue Butterflies. Mid September, last year, and we had success with a couple found in the kitchen and another three in the garden (see blog here). 

There had been no sign of  caterpillar action on the Everlasting Pea but perhaps just having the plant in the garden is enough to attract females looking to lay eggs late in the season. The males will be sure to follow. We also have late flowering nectaring plants in the garden including Verbena which the butterflies seem to like.

This year September was no show and by the end of October I was starting to give up hope, my latest sighting ever had been 25th October. Then on 30th October during a heavy rain shower Sue walked into the kitchen and spotted one sitting on the kitchen window.

Long-tailed Blue

The next couple of hours played out exactly as last year. I took a few photographs. The butterfly refused to stay on any of the household green plants, preferring the windows and work surfaces. As with last year it only gave me one brief view of an open wing shot. Not ideal but you have to take whatever you are offered and it at least shows that this is a female.

Long-tailed Blue (back light)

 

With heavy rain outside I left it on one of the windows where it sat quiet happily till late afternoon.

Long-tailed Blue

Then with the sun breaking through I through I might have a chance of a picture on the garden greenery. I took it outside on my finger and gently placed it on the Verbena, with the image of it nectaring on the blue flowers already in my mind.

It was not to be, the instant it touched the plant it took off high over the garden, hovered there for about thirty seconds, then took off across the adjoining gardens. A replay of exactly what happened last year.

Long-tailed blues have successfully bred in this country but it is not clear if they can survive the winter in any stage of their life cycle. Perhaps with climate change we will eventually have a self supporting colony here.

I just hope she survives the incoming Storm Ciarán.

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!

Long-tailed Blue

With an influx of Long-tailed Blue butterflies being reported along the south coast we headed over to Whitehawk Hill to search for them. The best information we had was somewhere around the transmitter tower, so the plan was for a search for the food plant, everlasting pea Lathyrus latifolius, and then to stake it out and wait to see what turned up.

In practice it turned out to be a lot easier than that, as there were already two people searching the target area when we arrived.

We had a number of sightings with a maximum of two in the air at any one time so probably somewhere around four to six being present. They seemed to be based over the fence in the allotments and where making occasional forays out into the scrub area looking for Everlasting Pea. Their presence in the allotments could well herald a problem for the gardeners pea crops in a few weeks time.

My photographs are both of the same specimen and show a hole in the  under wing where the eye spot should be. It looks as though the combination of eye spots and short wispy tails has served its purpose and fooled a bird into attacking the wrong end of the butterfly.

The last influx of the Long-tailed Blue was in 2015 and that year the eggs laid by the migrants resulted in fresh UK born butterflies on the wing at the end of October. My blog of the 25th October of that year shows a freshly emerged individual. These are the pictures you really want rather than the slightly worn individual above.

They are said to not be able to survive the winters in this country in any stage of their life cycle but who knows, with global warming that may change. Great for butterfly fans but not so good for gardeners or farmers as they are considered a pest on the continent.



Having found our target species early on we then headed over to Steyning to have another look for the Brown Hairstreaks. This must be the most frustrating of all the Hairstreak family but at least this time we managed to see a few and get a couple of record shots.

Still not the pictures I really want but I will get them eventually. It's good to have a challenge in life, it's just a pity that you have to take it on when it is over 30 degrees out in the sun.

Long-tailed Blue

My first ever sighting of a Long-tailed Blue in the UK and it's not a migrant. This one was born and bred in Sussex.

There had been a number of sightings of the Long-tailed Blue earlier in the year. This had led to a strong belief that eggs had been laid and that these would developed  to the imago stage by around the end of September.

The caterpillar food plant is the everlasting pea and I had spent a couple of days, at the end of last month, searching locations where the plant grew in the hope of seeing the butterfly. It was warm and conditions were ideal but I saw nothing and had given up hope catching up with them for this year.  The last thing I expected, was to see reports of a newly emerged female, in relatively cool conditions, at the end of October.

Still, reports there were, so we made our way up to Shoreham cement works Saturday morning and spent a fruitless couple of hours searching for the butterfly. With no one else turning up to look and with rain coming in we left about eleven o'clock thinking we were wasting our time. Bad mistake, the butterfly appeared just after eleven and gave good views to a few people that arrived just after we left.

Back we went this morning and this time we were in luck. The butterfly had been located in a thick bank of ivy. It was covered in dew and views were restricted but at least I had my record shot.

Fortunately it gradually dried out and as it warmed up and became more active we managed to get some better shots.

and eventually it opened its wings

October has been a quiet month. There have been a lot of good birds reported around the country but most of them seem to be avoiding Sussex. Today made up for all the missed birds, a great sighting and another first for my UK butterfly list.

Even better a fresh male has now been reported at the same site. Looks as though I might be going back there tomorrow.