I had a most unexpected encounter with a freshly emerged female Black Hairstreak this morning. With the temperature barely 11 degrees, and a leaden sky, I had no real expectation of finding any butterflies. However this female Black Hairstreak was in a grassy meadow near Westcott, Bucks. It is at le...

Just to confirm that Black Hairstreak are now on the wing. I have seen them at Ham Home Wood for the last couple of days and a couple more at another local wood yesterday. Despite the warm weather and sun yesterday they were not very active. I found one possibly drying its wings that did not move of...