NFY: Common blue

15 Friday May 2026

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British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Common blue butterfly

I had to go all the way to the Isle of Portland to see my first Common blue butterflies of the year!

Nah, not really. It just so happened that I didn’t spot any locally before I headed down to Dorset for another wonderful week of wildlife spotting, based in my lovely favourite guesthouse in Weymouth. I returned home yesterday, and this morning I went for a walk to my local Lavernock Nature Reserve, where I saw a couple more Common blues, despite a cool nor-westerly and not a lot of sun.

In case you’re not overly familiar with these butterflies, the one in my first photo is a male; they always have completely blue upper wings. The butterfly in my second photo is a female; they are often quite brown but this particular specimen had a lot more blue in her upper wings. And below is a side view, showing the pattern of spots on the lower wings. Distinguishing one species of blue butterfly from another can sometimes be all about recognising the patterns on the underwings.

Butterflies on Creeping thistle

07 Sunday Sep 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Butterflies on Creeping thistle, Cirsium arvense, Common blue, Common blue butterfly, Common blue on Creeping thistle, Creeping thistle, Small copper, Small copper on Creeping thistle

Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) is a much maligned plant. I understand that it can be prolific and somewhat invasive given the right growth conditions but, at this time of year, when many other wildflowers are going over and the last of the summer insects are struggling to find food, it is a gift from the gods.

This is especially true this year, following a long hot and very dry summer. Though we’ve had rain on and off this past week, the remaining wildflowers have been slow to bounce back to life – and many are past recovering.

Not so the Creeping thistle, which I have seen providing much-needed nectar to thirsty flies, beetles, and butterflies, like the Small coppers and Common blues shown here.

Butterfly catch up

02 Friday May 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Common blue butterfly, Dingy Skipper, Large white, Small copper, Spring colour

Just as it’s always magical to see my first butterfly of the year, so is it just as special each time I see the first of each new species. These are the four most recent beauties that have made me smile.

On 25 April my first Large white of 2025 flitted along the footpath next to me, sipped on a Dandelion, then settled on a Bramble leaf long enough for me to photograph.

The next butterfly species to appear for me locally, on 27 April, was this lovely Dingy skipper at an unexpected location – a bonus!

The last few days of hotter than usual temperatures have presumably triggered the early emergence of some species. This stunning male Common blue popped up on 28 April, five days earlier than my previous earliest date.

And, this very morning, eight days earlier than I’ve ever seen one before, I caught a flash of brilliant orange and there sat this gorgeous Small copper, always a treat to see.

Mating pair

06 Friday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Common blue butterfly, Common blue mating pair, mating Common blue butterflies, Polyommatus icarus

Tuesday’s sighting of a single Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) was the earliest in my five years of butterfly recording, which could be due to climate change (apparently, many moths are appearing early this year as well), though it could also be that I’ve got to know my local area more thoroughly and know better where to look. Yesterday, though the weather wasn’t brilliant, I found four more Common blues, including this gorgeous mating pair.

220506 common blue butterflies

Getting up close

17 Tuesday Aug 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature photography

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British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue butterfly, macro photography, Meadow Brown, practising macro photography, Speckled wood

I mostly use my Olympus camera for macro photographs, and to get crisp shots I need to get within an inch or two of the subject. As you can imagine, a lot of little creatures are alarmed by a large animal looming over them with a camera so, from time to time, I use one of my daily walks to practise my stealth. After a couple of false starts yesterday, I was very pleased to get up close to these three butterflies – a Common blue, a Meadow brown and a Speckled wood – as the macro photos give such good detail of the anatomy of these beautiful butterflies.

210817 common blue 210817 meadow brown 210817 speckled wood

Roosting

02 Wednesday Jun 2021

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British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue butterflies roosting, Common blue butterfly, roosting butterflies

When we think of creatures roosting or going to roost at night, we usually think of birds – one magnificent example is the murmurations performed by Starlings before they all fly down to roost together, or you may have seen photos of mass gatherings of Pied wagtails roosting together for warmth during the colder winter months.

210602 roosting common blues (1)

However, birds aren’t the only creatures that roost – some butterfly species also roost at night, or earlier, if the weather is particularly dull and grey. One such species is the Common blue, which roosts, with head pointed downwards, usually on a tall stem of grass.

210602 roosting common blues (2)

These photos were taken late last Friday afternoon, following a morning of rain, when the cloud cover was still low and quite dense. The butterflies had obviously given up on the prospect of more sun that day and gone to bed early. I’m sure we all know that feeling!

the lower butterfly had just flown in and, as I watched, assumed the head-down position.

First Common blue

21 Friday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

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blue butterfly, British butterflies, Common blue, Common blue butterfly

This has been a strange spring, with frequent cool winds, a lack of rain that was restricting plant growth and cracking the ground, and now a couple of weeks of frequent rain that is saturating the land. This unseasonal weather has had a definite effect on wildlife, with some insects out and about early, but others emerging a week or more later than usual.

210522 common blue (2)

I would usually expect to see my first Common blue butterfly in mid May but this year’s first sighting came on Wednesday 19th and, somewhat surprisingly, it was high in the Welsh valleys, where the weather is often a few degrees cooler than my usual coastal patches. In fact, in between the sunny spells on Wednesday’s walk, I got hailed on. Go figure!

210522 common blue (1)

214/366 Butterfly eggs

01 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants

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British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly egg, Common blue butterfly, Common blue butterfly egg, Painted Lady, Painted lady egg, thistle

This Painted lady is only the fourth individual I’ve seen this year but she was by far the best, not because of her appearance, which is a little ragged around the edges, but because she was laying eggs … and I’d never seen a Painted lady egg before.

200801 painted lady

At just 0.65mm high, the egg is tiny and, in my reference book, it’s described as green but, to my eye, this one is more of a pale turquoise – the plant stem is green. And the plant is a thistle – Creeping thistle, I think, though it was a young plant with no flowers, which makes it harder for me to identify but probably more nourishing for the teeny tiny caterpillar to munch on when it emerges. Now if I can only find this exact plant again in approximately a week’s time …

And following hot on the heels of finding that Painted lady egg, today I spotted a female Common blue butterfly laying her eggs in a sheltered clearing. You can perhaps see in the photo how she is angling her body to deposit an egg underneath the foliage.

200801 Common blue egg laying

So, once again, I was able to find the newly laid egg and take some photos. According to my book, these eggs are usually 0.5mm in diameter and just 0.25mm high, so really tiny. I have no chance of finding this egg again but I’m really glad I had the chance to see it.

133/366 First Common blue

12 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

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British butterflies, British wildflowers, butterfly, Common blue butterfly, wildflowers on road verges, wildflowers on roadsides

One of the benefits of some local councils not mowing all the road verges at the moment is that wildflowers that would normally be strimmed to death are now being allowed to grow and bloom.

200512 Common blue butterfly (1)

Not only does this mean we get to enjoy their glorious rainbow of colours but the wildflowers’ pollen and nectar also provide a nutritious feast for all the newly emerging insects.

200512 Common blue butterfly (2)

And it was on one such uncut verge that I spotted my first Common blue butterfly of the year today, this stunning, pristine, little male.

200512 Common blue butterfly (3)

If only the councils would mow less all the time, then we’d be able to enjoy both the flowers and the insects all through spring and summer, and it would also go a little way to reversing the huge decline in insect life that’s happening all over the world.

200512 Common blue butterfly (4)

264/365 Staying power

21 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature

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#365DaysWild, British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Common blue butterfly, Lavernock Nature Reserve

It was looking faded, jaded and more than a little tatty but this Common blue butterfly has certainly got staying power. Most of its species have died off now in my local area so it was a delight to see this little one today at Lavernock.

190921 common blue