Prees Heath - Silver studded Blue

It's been ten years since I put in an appearance at Prees Heath for the Silver-studded Blue Butterflies! Too long as they made a perfect morning weather-wise even more special!

I'd missed the main emergence but there was one male sat on a bramble, letting the final fold in the wing unwrap!

Ladies first for the blog but in reality this was one of the last ones to be found!

Feeding almost exclusively on Birds-foot Trefoil

Then sat on a leaf whilst the heat was building up around midday! Despite the presence of nearby males, not a single one tried his luck!

A few more pics of some males, I took loads and couldn't bear to delete many of them :-)

The mandatory closed wing shot so the granular studs can be enjoyed!

Then wings open for sheer delight!

Arty views whilst perched on a stick!

Then back to the first shots of the day, a supremely fresh male!

Maybe I should make an annual event of this rather than celebrating decades?

Prees Heath - Silver Studs

Decisions decisions?? They make or break a day and I had oodles of luck going with me this weekend! I had decided to ignore the Derbyshire Western Bonelli’s Warbler yesterday and it had proved to be a virtual ‘no show’ day! I was up for it today though and opted for late afternoon as I was up there anyway (picking up Gemma from Manchester Airport!) A busy morning meant it was lunchtime before I departed and another good decision* – checking out Prees Heath on the way! I thought I may have been too late for updating my images with some ‘larger files’ of Silver-studded Blue butterflies. There were some really dire ones on the wind, tattered and torn wings but amazingly (a recent emergence??) quite a few pristine specimens too!) Males, really nice fresh one here
The 'silver' (actually metallic blue) studs not always evident on the underwing!
Females, as they do showing variable amounts of blue suffusing the predominantly brown upperwing.....
At least we can see those blue studs now!
Ringlet plus good numbers of Small Heath were also seen *Twas a good decision as the Bonelli’s didn’t show all afternoon until just before I got there – how timely is that!

Prees Heath - Silver studded Blues

Look on any distribution map and you will see just how rare and 'local', the Silver-studded Blue butterfly has become. Prees Heath is now the only colony remaining in the Midlands and the only known location now for ssp masseyi of this species (Plebius argus). A complex habitat relationship with ants is essential for survival and the site is now managed by SWT in the hope of continued survival. They have been on the wing for a while now and some were looking a little worn / tatty but a few presentable specimens were posing nicely on the heather or gorse....

Males are a deep iridescent blue with a broad black border against the white fringe to the upperwings.....








Underwing detail.....






Females are brown, again glowing with iridescence in the sunlight. Orange spots at the wing edges.....








The underwing detail, with the silver studs (light blue actually) showing nicely!








Back to birds then, another Hobby was seen over the heath. The final destination was a barley field off the A41 between Whitchurch and Tern Hill. Friends ringing on Whixall Moss had alerted us to a Quail calling earlier in the week, plus a possible Blue-headed Wagtail.....