Country diary: last outpost of the silver-studded blue butterfly

Prees Heath, Shropshire: Because of callous exploitation by collectors, this location was long kept secret but conservation work has helped the butterflies. Now there are clouds of them

"Silver-studded," said the man hunched over his phone, pointing at a patch of red fescue grass. "Clouds of 'em." Without looking up, he waved his arm over the common of Prees Heath. A stiff breeze ruffled the grass and carried the drone from surrounding trunk roads as sunlight flashed through scudding clouds. The day was as blue and silver-studded as the butterflies. Plebejus argus, the silver-studded blue butterfly, has its last outpost in the English Midlands here.

Plebejus suggests commoner and argus is perhaps keeping watch, but like the dwellers of many heathland commons, life for the butterflies here hung by a thread. Because of callous exploitation by collectors in the past, this location was long kept secret but conservation work to restore the heathland has helped the butterflies, and now there are waymarkers pointing them out.