Saturday 10 August 2013

THE LARGE HEATH BUTTERFLY.

The large heath butterfly is a rare butterfly in England with just a few sites in Cumbria,North Yorkshire and two sites in Lancashire.The needs of the butterfly are for HARE`S-TAIL COTTONGRASS for egg laying and food for the caterpillar and CROSS-LEAVED HEATH which is the nectar plant for the butterfly.

I visited a small site in Lancashire to try and photograph this rare butterfly,visiting  this site by yourself (like me) is not recommended as the butterfly easliy disappears into it`s surroundings while underfoot the bog is very uneven and you can easily drop down a couple of foot,not recommended while carring expensive photo equipment.If the bog doesn`t get you the horse flies will.

I`ve posted images of the hare`s-tail cottongrass,cross-leaved heath and the rare large heath butterfly.









6 comments:

Pete Woodruff said...

Nice one Martin.

A post with added interest as I've learned something in that I have no idea were the sites are and appreciate you not publicising them here.

Ana Mínguez Corella said...

Beautiful pictures Martin. Congrats..

Brian Rafferty said...

Martin.Superb images of the Lancashire Large Heath.You suffered bogs and clegs to obtain these beautiful images of what is a very rare Lancs butterfly.Excellent,very well done

Paul Foster said...

Love the shots Martin,very well deserverd too.You can only reap what you sew!

Pete Marsh said...

So much easier at the lowland sites Martin, apart from the clegs and peaty hollows! They are thinly distributed near my house at Goodber Common and areas west of there (with a few access areas to see them) but they aren't half difficult with a thin distribution (amongst the much commoner small heath) and habit of flying off miles when disturbed!

Pete Marsh said...

Sorry meant 'east of there'

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