Devon SSSI nature reserve and eco lodges - Maggie's Blog
10 June
Blue butterflies and blackbird eggs...
It's not particularly rare, but it's new for our records - a common blue butterfly on Popehouse Moor. What a lovely colour. It's latin name is Polyommatus icarus - I hope this one doesn't fly too close to the sun. It'll be from the first brood of the year, which flies in May and June. Sometimes anther flies in late summer. The larvae feed on the leaves of birdsfoot trefoil, clover etc, so there should be plenty for them to eat.
Here's it's fact sheet from butterfly conservation.
This is only the second blue I've seen here - the other was a holly blue, which likes holly in spring and ivy in later summer (where I saw it - we try to encourage ivy, it's good winter emergency food for bees, great nesting for birds, and much prettier than the walls of many of our outbuildings).
And speaking of birds...
We've been thwarted again in our plans for destruction - this time in the woodshed. Ian was chainsawing wood for next winter when he realised he'd exposed a nest. Peeking in, he saw 3 blue eggs and what looked like a maggot on one of them. His first thought was that he'd disturbed it a few days ago and the eggs were already deserted. But on closer inspection, the maggot was actually a beak just breaking through. It's another blackbird nest - time to beat a hasty retreat and hope the squirrel doesn't find out. Here's the nest a couple of days later - when essential wood stacking (more of that next post) temporarily displaced the mother.
