Country diary: An alarmingly bad day searching for butterflies | Jennifer Jones

Green Beach, Sefton coast, Merseyside: It was a glorious day in a biodiversity hotspot that's full of different habitats - where were they all?Standing at the Green Beach, I felt positive. A panorama of floral diversity shimmered in front of me, ideal for my mission. The still, sunny, warm conditions were also in my favour, contrasting with the recent unseasonable chilly and damp days. This beach in north Merseyside is a 4km stretch of salt marsh and sand dune habitat and a biodiversity hotspot. Over 60 hectares of new dune, dune slack, fen, wet woodland and salt marsh habitats have formed between Ainsdale and Birkdale since 1986.At home we have endured a lepidopteran famine. Despite our healthy No Mow May front garden, several buddleia shrubs and flowering grasses, I have seen only one brimstone and one orange-tip. Hence my visit here in hope of a butterfly bounty. Pause-wait-watch. My progress was deliberately slow. Skylarks trilled as they soared, wrens sang, and goldfinches cheered among alders. A fluting blackcap and a brief announcement from a garden warbler excited me. Insects flitted, dragonflies dashed, but I began to lament the absence of butterflies. Then, a migraine scintillation in the corner of my eye: a common blue, its worn wings witness to its fragility, but a butterfly at last, skimming among plantain flowers. As I gazed on this beauty, a small white flew past. Continue reading...