12 hours ago
Young country diary: An explosion of emerald butterflies
It was late morning, and my family and I were walking along the coast of south Devon. The sun blazed in the clear sky, and a green carpet of grass was interspersed with violets, bluebells and sea campions. Seals basked in the morning sunshine below us and the occasional bloody-nosed beetle lumbered across the path. It wasn't long before we got our first glimpse of a green hairstreak butterfly. It had emerald wings and black and white antennae.
It was so delicate, it looked as if it was made of porcelain. My mum said it was a rare sight, as she had only ever seen three before in her life and although they're widespread across Britain, they're hard to spot. Unfortunately, their population is declining, partly due to habitat loss. But further on, we saw another, its wings glinting in the sunlight and the flower it was perched on nodding gently in the breeze.
We continued to see the green wonders darting about, occasionally settling on a clump of prickly gorse. By the end of the walk, my legs were burning from the steep ascent, and we had encountered perhaps about 50 of them. My mum said we probably wouldn't see anything like it again. They must have just hatched, because there were so many, and there was a lot of gorse around, which is one of their caterpillar food-plants.
I wonder if, when we go back next year, we'll find some more of those magical creatures.
Read today's other YCD, by Issy, 11: 'Looking into the big eyes of a brown hare'
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