Long-tailed Blue; Emergence Of The Brits
The eagerly anticipated emergence of British Long-tailed Blues has begun. This morning (19 September) I headed out feeling quite confident of seeing my first home-grown specimen of the year. The timing of this entire event has borne an uncanny resemblance to proceedings in 2013, so it came as no surprise when I struck gold just one day later than my first sighting of a ‘Brit’ at Kingsdown Leas that year.
Based on the 2013 model, it was also unsurprising that the females have emerged first, which is of course the opposite pattern to that observed in most species. This year I also hope to be able to test my theory that, once mated, the females will immediately turn south and depart for their homelands.
I chose Newhaven Tide Mills as a venue, as my study of Sussex Long-tailed Blue ova has suggested that this site was visited by the earlier part of the main influx, before it stalled for a significant period due to bad weather in August.
At about 11.15 am I flushed a female from a stand of Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea and had the best part of 10 minutes observing and photographing her, before her rapid, twisting flight threw me off her trail.
I thought I had relocated the same insect at c. 11.30 am, but didn’t manage to photograph her before she looped up high over an extensive area of bramble scrub and disappeared from view. This later proved to be a second, freshly emerged female, with a distinctly duskier upperside.
Having put the news out to a few friends I became worried that I would have nothing to show on their arrival. Moving around to the other side of the bramble patch I began to systematically scan every leaf for sight of her. After 20 minutes I noticed her sitting only a couple of metres away, just as B. rex and Trevor appeared over the horizon. We were later joined by Mark Colvin and Badger Bob, who all enjoyed wonderful views of this perfect specimen before we lost track of her at c.1.15 pm.
I was pleased that a reasonable number of people were able to share in the excitement, including all those who have invested a lot of time in searching for the primary immigrant adults and their eggs.
Only time will tell if the 2015 influx of Long-tailed Blue will produce more adult sightings than the unprecedented 2013 invasion, but on present form it could be neck-and-neck.