Butterflies / Collard Hill

Large Blues at Collard Hill

by Jeff Bevan · Published 24th June 2016 · Updated 29th June 2016

Its been a while since my last post. There are two reasons for this – first was DIY as my home is extended with a new kitchen; second, the weather has been really bad. Weeks of grey days broken up by heavy showers. The few times the sun came out I was busy in work.

Today I made my first trip in weeks – my annual visit in search of large blue butterflies at Collard Hill. Each year the National Trust open the hill and provide volunteers to help us find these rare butterflies.

As expected the weather was poor. I was lucky to arrive just as the sun was coming out. I had a brief hour of good weather before the skies opened and I made a run in the rain back to the car park at the youth hostel.

I decided to try the quarry area. This area is low down on the right as you enter Collard Hill from the busy road junction. The quarry is steep but it is out of the wind and faces the sun.

I was lucky to find several large blue butterflies here. As I hoped the mixture of sun and cloud was great for photographing butterflies. The cold weather slows them down and they need to rest and open their wings each time the sun comes out. This makes them much easier to approach.

Open Wings

I was lucky enough to get close up and photograph this one with its wings open.

Large Blue (Maculinea arion) – Collard Hill

I carefully moved a blade of grass to remove the shadow that was cutting across its wings.

Large Blue (Maculinea arion) – Collard Hill, Somerset

Wild Thyme

The butterflies lay their eggs on wild thyme. If you follow a butterfly you can attempt to guess its path by looking ahead for patches of wild thyme. Keep your shadow low and be ready to drop to the ground just as the butterfly stops on a flower. This gives you a fews seconds to get a shot.

On the other hand, it is probably all just luck and perseverance!

Large Blue (Maculinea arion) – Collard Hill, Somerset

Collard Hill

Even if it lacked large blue butterflies Collard Hill would be a great place to visit. The grassland is covered in flowers and butterflies. Today I also saw painted ladies, large and small skippers, 5 or 6 spotted burnet moths, common blues and marbled whites.

Collard Hill, Somerset

And finally Ivythorn Hill…

Between Collard Hill and the youth hostel car park is Ivythorn Hill. This patch of grassland is full of orchids. I took some pictures on the way to Collard Hill. On this popular site trials of flattered grass lead up the best specimens. I was going to take a longer look on the way back but it was pouring with rain so instead I was running with my camera wrapped in a plastic bag.