Common Blue

Wednesday - my day off. Today we ran a (free) children's bug hunt on the reserve. We weren't expecting much of a turn out so were delighted when almsot 30 children aged from 5 to 12 turned up accompanied by parents, grandparents, aunties etc. We steered them over the common to one of the long rides so that we could see where they were, armed them with sweep nets and collecting boxes and let them loose. In two hours they found nearly 40 different insect species, lots of crickets, grasshoppers, shieldbugs and spiders with a few glow-worms, beetles, moths and butterflies. Hopefully we'll have sparked an interest in one or two children - and maybe even some adults -that will continue in the future.

In the afternoon the spaniel and I went for a very long walk over the Downs, there were hundreds of round-headed rampion to be seen as well as a few clustered bellflowers. Spoilt for choice on which image to use for today, I settled on this common blue feeding on a spike of dwarf gorse amongst the heather, one of the butterflies from the morning bug hunt. Although called the 'common blue' only the male butterfly is blue. Like most of the 'blues' the female is predominantly brown.