New location for Purple hairstreak

30 Tuesday Jul 2024

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British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly on Oak, hairstreak butterflies, Heath Park, Oak, Purple hairstreak

Since I discovered a Purple hairstreak, a couple of years ago, at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, where they’d never been recorded before, I’ve been convinced that these gorgeous little butterflies are more common than most people realise. It’s just that, because they’re very small and spend most of their time high up in the tops of Oak trees, nobody notices them. So, being an habitual leaf-starer anyway, I now spend 10-15 minutes at this time of year staring at Oak trees, just in case. Last week, my leaf-staring paid off once again, when I was exploring Cardiff’s Heath Park. There are lots of large old Oaks in the park so it seemed a likely location, despite there being no recorded sightings. And this was my reward – even better than I expected, as it fluttered down from the top of the tree to a lower branch and posed nicely while I got some photos.

240730 purple hairstreak

H is for hairstreaks

13 Wednesday Dec 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British butterflies, butterfly, Green hairstreak, hairstreak, hairstreak butterflies, Purple hairstreak

H is for hairstreaks, purple and green. For me, 2023 was a particularly good year for Purple hairstreaks. On 21 July, in Purple sheen, I blogged about those I had already seen at Lavernock Nature Reserve and at Casehill Woods, but I was lucky to see them in three more locations, at Ystrad Mynach on 25 July, in Dingle Park on 27 July, and finally one at Cosmeston on 1 August. The photos below are from my Ystrad Mynach encounter, where I almost stood on a Purple hairstreak that had been blown on to the pavement in front of me from its large Oak tree across the narrow busy road, probably by the many passing high-sided trucks. After taking a few photographs, I took the tiny creature back across the road and placed it as near to its tree as I could reach.

231213 purple hairstreak

There are no local places to see Green hairstreaks so I was particularly delighted in June to see my first in four years (A streak of green), at Charlton Kings Common just outside Cheltenham.

231213 green hairstreak

I also enjoyed a lovely encounter with a White-letter hairstreak this year but thought I’d highlight in this blog the Purple (for those special in-the-hand moments) and the Green (for the first sighting in so long).

Mating hairstreaks

14 Thursday Jul 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British butterflies, butterfly, hairstreak butterflies, mating butterflies, mating White-letter hairstreaks, White-letter hairstreaks

Saturday’s walk to my local woodlands started with a magical experience when I spotted these mating hairstreaks sitting, almost hidden, on a leaf of a small sapling. The tree was a young Oak, so I assumed the butterflies were Purple hairstreaks but a closer look showed these were actually White-letter hairstreaks, though there were no Wych elms, their usual habitat, anywhere in sight. The lessons for me were twofold: I should always check rather than make assumptions, and butterflies don’t always do what you expect them to. And, though I felt a little like a voyeur, the butterflies were a joy to see so close, and they stayed quite still while I took this series of photographs.

220714 mating white-letter hairstreaks

H is for hairstreak

13 Monday Dec 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British butterflies, butterfly, hairstreak butterflies, hairstreaks, Purple hairstreak, White-letter hairstreak

Another day, another letter, more butterflies but this has been a great year for hairstreak butterflies. The first highlight was finding my first ever Purple hairstreak larva at the end of May. I spotted it on two subsequent visits before it disappeared, hopefully to pupate.

211213 purple hairstreak larva

I only saw one Purple hairstreak butterfly in that woodland – in a different area so probably not the metamorphosed larva – but did see the butterflies at two other local sites.

211213 purple hairstreak

And, though I was delighted with my Purple hairstreak sightings this year, I was even more thrilled by the many White-letter hairstreaks I saw. This comes partly from learning to recognise and remember where the Wych elms grow in my local area but also partly from luck – my best sighting of the year, my white-letter day, was simply a case of being in the right place at the right time.

211213 white-letter hairstreak