15 Thursday Sep 2022
Posted in insects
Well, this was a surprise sighting during today’s walk! Holly blue butterflies have two broods each year (very occasionally three in the right conditions) but even with a second brood, the adults have usually disappeared by the beginning of September. This female did look quite faded and a bit bird-pecked but she was still flying strongly. Butterflies continuously amaze me!
26 Friday Aug 2022
Posted in insects
This Holly blue was a lovely unexpected surprise during this morning’s meander around Cosmeston. Holly blues do have two broods each year but this is quite late in the season to see adults of the second brood. A blue blessing!
07 Tuesday Jun 2022
Remember A Holly blue and her egg, my post on 24 May? Well, the egg has now hatched and I’ve had my first glimpses of the larva, so incredibly tiny that, with my poor eyesight, I had to take some macro photographs and look at those to be sure of what I was seeing – spot the hairy larva in the photo on the right below.
These images were taken one day apart, so the larva can have been no more than 24 hours old at this stage. In his essential publication Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, author Peter Eeles writes: ‘The larva starts to feed by burying its head deep into the bud on which the egg was laid’. This is the first of four stages the larva goes through before it pupates, so I’ll be checking back regularly to try to monitor its progress.
24 Tuesday May 2022
Posted in insects
This Holly blue butterfly was egg-laying as I watched so I was able to get photos of one of her amazing eggs, in this case laid on the flower buds of Dogwood.
28 Monday Mar 2022
I’ve skipped a few butterfly firsts but all the species I see will get their turn over time. Today, I am simply too excited at seeing my first Holly blue of the year to choose anything else, as there’s just something extraordinary about a butterfly this colour.
04 Wednesday Aug 2021
Posted in insects
The second generation of Holly blue butterflies has now hatched and the males can be seen whizzing rapidly along the hedgerows and woodland ride edges in search of a mate. Fortunately, this one paused for a short time so I was able to get a few photos. For more information on their two annual broods and the switch from Holly to Ivy as their larval food plants, see my earlier post Holly blues, the second generation, August 2018.
21 Wednesday Apr 2021
There’s something quite startling about a tiny blue creature flying through your field of vision – it’s certainly eyecatching. I saw my first Holly blue of the year during Sunday’s meander but that one didn’t linger for a photograph. Yesterday, in a location where I didn’t see any last year, they were like buses – I saw four in total, including these two that floated in together.
11 Saturday Apr 2020
Another new butterfly species for the year, the Holly blue!
This individual is actually the second one I’ve seen – the first was up and over the bushes and trees too quickly for me to grab a photo but this little lovely was flying slowly from spot to spot along a grassy slope so I was able to enjoy its beauty and get a couple of images. There’s just something very special about blue butterflies and the Holly blue is usually the first of the year to emerge.
23 Tuesday Jul 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, British butterflies, butterfly, Holly blue, Holly blue butterfly, Lavernock Nature Reserve, summer butterflies
The Holly blue is one of several British butterflies that goes through more than one life cycle per year (you can read more about them here), and the second generation of these stunning little butterflies is now on the wing in my local reserves and wild places.
I saw my first of the summer brood on 14 July at Grangemoor Park, and this perfect little female was feeding on bramble flowers when I visited Lavernock Nature Reserve on Saturday, 20 July. Look out for them on ivy bushes, as that’s where the second generation females lay their eggs.
15 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, Holly blue, Holly blue butterfly, Lavernock Nature Reserve
I walked almost every path, track and trail at Lavernock Nature Reserve today hoping that, in spite of the strong cold southerly wind blowing in off the sea, I might find some butterflies in the more sheltered spots … and I did – four Speckled woods, a fine male Orange-tip, and the one butterfly I had hoped most to see, my first Holly blue and my tenth butterfly species for 2019. And what a beauty it was!
earthstar 
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