H is for hairstreak

13 Monday Dec 2021

Tags

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

Purple poser

19 Monday Jul 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, Butterflies of Oak woodlands, butterfly, butterflying, hairstreaks, Purple hairstreak

You may remember that at the end of May I made the surprise discovery of a Purple hairstreak butterfly larva in my local woodlands. Despite much searching I never found another but, as these butterflies are now on the wing, I’ve been keeping an eye out for any adults when I walk the woodland rides in that area.

210719 purple hairstreak (1)

And last week I found one … or, I should really say, it found me. I was focused on checking for butterflies flying high in the canopy of the Oak trees when a small grey-looking butterfly flitted close around my head and then disappeared into the branches next to the path. A few seconds later it reappeared and spent a few minutes, feeding on the honeydew on the leaves, before floating back up to the canopy again. A fanciful thought but it was almost like it was saying ‘Here I am. Look at me’, so I did.

210719 purple hairstreak (2)

Though these butterflies give a predominantly grey impression when you see them, they are named for the deep purple markings on their upper wings. You can catch just a glimpse of that vibrant colour in the photo above.

A white-letter day

09 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by sconzani in trees

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, butterfly on Wych elm, hairstreaks, Satyrium w-album, White-letter hairstreak, Wych elm

I’m sure you’ve all heard of red-letter days, those days that are of special significance or particularly memorable. Well, for me, yesterday was a red-letter white-letter day – the day when I had my best ever views of the elusive White-letter hairstreak butterfly (Satyrium w-album).

210709 white-letter hairstreak (1)

These beautiful creatures spend most of their time in the tops of Wych elm trees (now that most English elms have died from Dutch elm disease) so my first sighting of them this year was typical – they were flitting around the top of a tree in a local park, far too distant for good views, let alone photos (see above).

210709 white-letter hairstreak (2)

Then, yesterday, I was walking in meadows adjacent to a local woodland, when I spotted this gorgeous White-letter hairstreak nectaring on a thistle right next to the path in front of me. I was able to photograph and watch it for at least 15 minutes before it flew back towards the nearby Wych elm. A white-letter day to treasure!

210709 white-letter hairstreak (3)

193/365 Hairstreaks

12 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, British butterflies, butterfly, hairstreaks, Purple hairstreak, record shots only, White-letter hairstreak

Record shots only! Have you heard that term? Well, these photos are extremely good examples of what it means – really lousy photos, sometimes taken at long distance and then heavily cropped, often blurry, possibly adjusted in Photoshop or similar image processing software to try to enhance the features, but really only retained as proof that you did actually see what you say you saw. (So you can actually see what lovely butterflies these are, I’ve linked their names to the relevant pages on the Butterfly Conservation website.)

190712 white-letter hairstreak

Luckily, with this shot of a White-letter hairstreak, I was with another person, who actually showed me the location, so I have a witness to the sighting. From my ‘record shot’ you probably can’t even tell that the small blob in the sky is a butterfly flitting around in the top canopy of this Wych elm.

190712 purple hairstreak (1)

I did a little better with the Purple hairstreak. Again, this is a known location, where other people have seen and photographed these lovely little butterflies in recent days. The first time I visited, all I could see were small flutterings at the very top of the tall old oak trees where the Purple hairstreaks live. Luckily, on my second visit, some of the butterflies were moving around further down the tree. I just needed to be patient and wait for one to fly, then try to follow where it went – believe me, that’s not easy as they almost seem to disappear amongst the leaves and they really are quite small (a wing span of 37-39mm).

190712 purple hairstreak (2)