The past couple of weeks have been peak ‘staring at trees’ time for crazy people like me (I’m sure that’s what people who see me think – ‘There she is again, that crazy woman who stands and stares at the tree tops’). Little do they know that my time spent staring at the tops of the Wych elms and Oaks at various local sites has paid off handsomely.

I saw my first White-letter hairstreaks (Satyrium w-album) of the year on 19 June, at a location where they hadn’t been recorded before but where I’d previously noted the numerous Wych elms and wondered. As you can see above, these were the typical initial views of hairstreaks, fluttering around in the tops; sadly, many years these are the only views, despite a lot of staring but, this year – in fact, the very next day, I was treated to much better views. This was at another new location, discovered by a local birder.

Purple hairstreaks (Favonius quercus) usually appear a week or so after the White-letters and so it was this year. On 25 June, I was walking home through a small local park which is, amazingly, home to both species, and noticed a few small grey fluttering creatures above one of the huge old Oak trees. That was the hottest day of the year to date, far too hot for even crazy women to stand staring for long, so I didn’t linger to try to grab photos.

Instead, a few days later, on 29 June, when the temperatures had cooled down, I walked through Lavernock Nature Reserve to check the Oaks along the road opposite the main entrance. Et voilà! Several Purple hairstreaks were flitting about the branches about half way up the tree, which gave for much closer, though still not super close views. Every year I look forward to the time when the hairstreaks appear and this year certainly hasn’t disappointed.