Country diary: A butterfly haven of orange tips and holly blues | Sara Hudston

Powerstock Common, Dorset: I’m hopeful that the mixed habitats here and bright weather will bring them out in their droves – and I’m not disappointed The recent pulse of warm, sunny weather has encouraged butterflies to fly in large numbers in Dorset. They were everywhere when I visited Powerstock Common: the moment I opened the car door, a brimstone fluttered sulphur-yellow over the parking area, lifted on a stream of blackcap song. Bright as butter in the sunshine, it’s possible that brimstones are the species that inspired the word “butterfly”. When this one settled on a hazel, its underwings merged green among the new leaves, the colours indicating it was a male. Females are much paler, sometimes almost white. Both sexes have a pair of browny-orange spots on their wings, which are foxed like the page edges of an old book. The common is one of the best places in west Dorset for butterflies, particularly the dismantled railway line where it opens out into a broad, south-facing cutting. Short, rabbit-nibbled turf dotted with low scrub merges into taller woodland, providing a fabulous mixed habitat that includes a spring-fed pond – insects need water as well as warmth. A peacock bu