We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.
Last Saturday we had a long drive to reach our starting point near the bottom of the long hill down to the gate at the entrance to the Cook Bay private property. The road here has recently been upgraded, widened and with new ditches dug along both sides. For a short distance along one ditch the bank was damp, but had very little vegetation cover and for some reason was very attractive to a species of small blue butterflies. I don't think I have ever seen so many of them gathered in one place before. It reminded me of sunny clearings in the rain forest in Africa where puddles of water would sometimes attract masses of butterflies of many species. I managed to get photos of these hyperactive blues at rest, but when in the air they moved so fast I found it impossible to get shots of the bright blue dorsal surface of the wings. Later I identified them from the photos as the common Spring Azure, Celastrina argeolus. This species is also found in Europe and was given it's latin name by Linnaeus way back in 1780 so it's certainly not rare or unusual.
The females lay their eggs on the flowers of shrubs, often Arbutus, ocean spray and elderberry in our area. When the eggs hatch into caterpillars they are often looked after by ants which are rewarded when the larvae release drops of tasty fluid from their body. What a curious symbiotic relationship!
JD.
Three Spring Azure blues attracted to a seepage area along a roadside ditch near Cook Bay.
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