This week you get a blue story
It all began about twelve months ago. I saw this fabulous blue butterfly in the garden at home. I worked really hard to get a picture of it – but, the way they do, it kept flying off and when it did settle for any length of time, it closed its wings or it settled on a leaf that blew around in the breeze.
Chalkhill Blue
In the end I managed to capture a semi-blurry fuzzy image (not unlike most of the pictures I take) and sent it off to a friend of mine who knows about these things. Of course I kept the original safe – thinking, who knows may be some butterfly enthusiasts magazine might pay real money folding money for a picture of a rare species.
This turned out to be a Common Blue
My friend replied very promptly – but only to say that it was a Common Blue!
He smoothed off the explanation by saying that the term common could be misleading because there were not all that many of them about. Even so a “Common Blue!”
So I did lots of happy snaps last year and got some quite nice pictures of pretty ordinary Tortoiseshell butterflies.
During a spell of hot weather this summer, I visited a place not far from the North Norfolk Coast and saw… you got it – blue butterflies.
I think these are a bit more special – there are lots of them about but in only a few areas.
I think they are Chalkhill Blues.
I’ll wait for the howls of protest. In the mean-time – it makes a good story.
