Early morning blues

Pete went off early, after bringing me a cup of coffee in bed, and as the sun was shining I decided to get up and take the dogs to Waternewton. Typically by the time I got there a veil of grey cloud had developed. We normally walk round the island clockwise, but the cattle grazing in the field across the backwater loomed over the kissing gate and Gemma and Rosie were too intimidated to go through. So we turned tail and walked anticlockwise in the hope that the cattle would have shifted.

I knew that there was a colony of common blues along the route, but didn't realise that they'd still be roosting. At night or in cool or rainy weather butterflies are inactive, and thus particularly vulnerable to attack by birds and small mammals. Different species of butterflies roost in different places but members of the Blue family normally roost at the top of grass heads, assuming a head-downwards position. This strategy seems a little difficult to understand, as the butterflies are easily spotted. The probable explanation is that they are choosing sites where they are out of reach of nocturnal predators such as mice.

The tall grassland alongside the path was sprinkled with male common blues. Some were still hanging head downwards, but many had adjusted their position so that they were parallel to the rising sun, maximising the chance of soaking up the warmth, and allowing them to fly off in search of nearby nectar plants. This roosting behaviour is one of the reasons that it's often valuable having a mosaic of long and short grassland within a nature reserve.

The rest of the walk passed uneventfully. The cattle were mostly lying down chewing the cud when we reached them, so I put the dogs on their leads, assumed an air of total confidence and walked us all safely through the middle of the herd, though I did have to keep talking to the dogs to re-assure them that it was all OK... Of course when I got back to the car the sun came out again.

Finally a big thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments, stars and hearts for yesterday's tweetie-pie moth. I was really surprised it was so popular - it was actually a bit of an emergency blip!