15th August Brownie search take 3
Those pesky Brown Hairstreaks are proving reluctant to show for me this year, but luckily I had an ace up my sleeve this year. On my trip to Fermyn,
PhiliB had offered to take me to Shipton Berlinger when the time was right. A few emails and a last minute request for a day off work and it was arranged… another silly early 5.30 start to my day.
3 ½ hours later I was looking at my first Brownie of the year, a female lurking in some nettle spotted by
Roselyn (I’d walked straight past her!)
Also here was
Willrow and between the four of us we managed at least four Hairstreaks. There was some discussion as to what they were up to down in the grass this early but zooming on a few of my pics they seemed to be feeding, perhaps obtaining moisture for the day’s events?
![IMG_3004.JPG (69.45 KiB) Viewed 523 times Heavily cropped](./files/thumb_13753_817c2b9d592a89b8cfb61c0e27f3cf46)
- Heavily cropped
Amongst the gorgeousness was this rather drab, nondescript individual…
We wandered around when they all vanished late morning, taking in the other inhabitants of the site, Common Blues, Brown Argus and Brimstones all catching my eye.
![IMG_3063.JPG (123.64 KiB) Viewed 523 times Looked like he was trying to lay an egg...?](./files/thumb_13753_af610bf338bef74e8d74aff24686472b)
- Looked like he was trying to lay an egg...?
Brownies could be seen flitting around the occasional Ash tree...
...but then in the early afternoon the real action started, a couple of females came down to feed on some Bramble blossom. Nectar sources were few and far between here so they didn’t go far and behaved impeccably for a small group of Brownie worshippers. They were both in tip top condition bar some missing tails on one. It was this one, ‘Stumpy’, who sat in front of us first, ‘Tails’ sat further back basking and feeding. Phil kindly leant me his 210mm lens so I could get that little bit closer.
A whole half an hour went by until Tails decided to flaunt herself in front of us, to a flurry of snapping cameras.
Then Stumpy came back and for a couple of seconds they sat together before a little boxing match sent Stumpy off to find another flower
I finally left her when I looked at my camera to see I had about two hundred pics all looking rather similar!
Wandering along the hedge a little later with Phil, he noticed one flutter down. She sat basking out of reach for a while before coming further down for some more basking whilst looking for somewhere to lay. I don’t think she actually laid anything, just going through the motions and being a typical fussy female.
A fantastic day and all told we probably saw about 10 or so individuals. Big thanks again to
PhilB and
Roselyn for the lift and great to meet another UKBer,
Willrow ![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)