Country diary: gripped by a grayling's disappearing act

Dartmoor, Devon: I pinpoint the butterfly's position and approach carefully, but somehow can't locate itThe path ahead runs like a threadbare strip of carpet between low-lying vegetation. Scuffed by walkers, eroded by the elements and frayed by sheep, its worn matting of coarse grass scarcely covers the stony ground.As I follow it up the slope of this west Dartmoor hill I can hear on all sides the pistol-crack of gorse pods popping in the heat, firing their seeds around them, and sunshine has set grasshoppers on the trail chirping in bursts that sound like tiny pneumatic drills. Continue reading...