Long-tailed Blue 2026.

 2026 has been a strange year for the rare migrant species, the Long-tailed Blue. The butterfly doesn't generally reach our shores until mid-late summer, but the life cycle is so quick there is a chance of 2 or 3 more broods in the short time until they vanish again in late October, and occasionally early November.

This year there were sporadic reports from a few of the usual locations, including the well known Whitehawk site on the edge of Brighton. Indeed, on my Summer butterfly tour I did take my clients there and we had some views of the fast flying males. They were a little worn, and as they were very active I didn't worry about taking photos at that time.

Moving forward several weeks, Lisa was over the day after I had heard reports from the Pevensey area where Dave Brown had seen a small number around the clumps of Everlasting Pea plants. As Lisa had never been to that particular area we decided we may as well have a look along the seafront there, just on the off chance that we might see the butterflies, and if we didn't see them it would still be a nice walk.

After parking the car at Pevensey Bay we headed in the general direction of Eastbourne, and quickly spotted some pea plant. A brief look around didn't produce anything apart from a Common Blue. As there was a bench nearby we decided at that point to have our lunch, and it was just after taking a mouthful I spotted a blue butterfly land on some foliage that looked more like a Long-tailed Blue. It was several metres away, so I still needed to get closer to confirm, so keeping my eye on where it landed I walked slowly towards it. Straight away it was clear it was our target, and as it opened its wings it was also clear it was a female. The only problem for me was I had left the camera on the bench. Fortunately, Lisa had brought hers and managed an open wing shot. I had to do with closed wings after it had flown away and landed nearby. But as the sun had now gone behind a cloud, the wings stayed shut!

Female Long-tailed Blue.

The butterfly was in immaculate condition, but after getting some photos it vanished. Often the females migrate back over the Channel to France soon after emerging, so this may have happened here, or it could have just flown further along the beach, but there wasn't anywhere obvious that would be a good nectaring source.

After 30 minutes or so, and after finishing our lunch, we headed further west along the beach. After walking all the way to the edge of Eastbourne we at last found some more of the pea plant. On one of the flower buds I spotted a Long-tailed Blue egg, but there were still no more adult butterflies. 

The white egg of the Long-tailed Blue.

Seeing the egg gave us hope that there were more of the adult butterflies around, but it wasn't until we had walked back a little way that I spotted another really fresh female Long-tailed Blue nectaring on some Lucerne. This butterfly was extremely confiding, and gave me one of the best sessions I've had with this rare butterfly. It was enjoying the nectar so much we could both get many photos of it as it fed.

Female Long-tailed Blue on Lucerne.

The butterfly regularly flew from one flower to another, and then suddenly it was gone. Once again we waited and searched for a while, but the butterfly had vanished and was not seen again. I did hear that the following day a male had been seen in the same area, and possibly on the same flowers, but no females.

On our way back to the car we once again had a look around the site where we had seen the first butterfly, but only a Common Blue was seen there. We did also see several Clouded Yellows along the beach, and one did pose well enough for me to take a photo of it.

Clouded Yellow on the beach.

It actually ended up as quite a long walk, which was pretty tiring walking all the way on shingle. However, it was very much worth the effort with some of our best shots of the female Long-tailed Blue.