Collard Hill

Long grass – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR59183

My annual trip to the National Trust’s Collards Hill nature reserve to photograph the extremely rare large blue butterfly.  I did not know what to expect as the trust had not been running their large blue butterfly blog this year.

The first thing I noticed was how much longer the grass was compared to previous years.  Then I realised that there was no volunteers helping out.  Perhaps the pandemic had forced a change to the reserve’s management plan.  That is completely understandable.

The first butterfly I spotted was the very common meadow brown.

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR59192

It is important not to overlook the common species.

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR59223

Next I stumbled across this emperor dragonfly who was clearly not overlooking the more common butterflies.

Emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR58923

Bumblebees enjoyed the thistles.

Bumblebee and Thistle – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR58797

Then, I spotted my first large blue.  Waving around on a floppy bit of grass.  Really difficult to photograph!

Large Blue (Phengaris arion) – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR59266

After a couple of hours my luck changed.  This mating pair had other things on their minds, so they ignored me completely.

Large Blue (Phengaris arion) – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR59460

Some the large blues must have been around for several weeks.  This one had lost around half a wing.

Large Blue (Phengaris arion) – Collard Hill, Nr Street, Somerset, UK. ID BR58941