Mid July 2021
Readers will probably recall that the majority of my wildlife observations come from East Anglia (well Norfolk and a couple of small bits of Suffolk) but I do try to go on one out-of-county excursion most years, often in search of new butterfly species. This year I went on one of Carl Chapman's tours to look for the Large Blue, a butterfly that was lost as a British species but subject to an extensive reintroduction project that involved restoring habitat to allow the part of the life cycle that requires particular types of ant.
We arrived at our destination in the Cotswolds to find some impressive limestone grassland, marked with large Woolly Thistles. One of the commonest butterfly species seen was the Marbled White, which living in Norfolk is still something of a novelty.We explored part of the site, seeing some nice flora and various butterfly species, but no Large Blues. We had just stopped for lunch when a call went up from a nearby footpath, as a male Large Blue had been spotted. Going over we managed to get our first views, including briefly perched up, before an obliging mating pair were also found!
One of the site volunteer wardens had come across to make sure that we had seen them, and I took the opportunity to ask him about one of the sites rare plants, Cut-leaved Germander. He very kindly took me to the area where it grows so that I could see this rare member of the Lamiaceae. Whilst up on the ridge we also saw Deadly Nightshade, and back down on the lower slope I foud some Clustered Bellflower.
A nice range of insects included a beetle on St Johns Wort, Cryptocephalus moraei, Downland Villa (a bee-fly relative) and lots of green Cryptocephalus beetles, probably C. aureolus.
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