2nd September, a three-nil win at Bookham!
Whilst the butterflying fraternity of South East England has been camped out in a field in Sussex the Brown Hairstreaks of Bookham have been quietly going about their business. With their early flight period this year, today's trip may well be my last Hairstreak hunt for the year so I was glad the weather forecast for once proved be pretty accurate.
There was a definite autumnal nip to the air to start with and not a great deal on the wing, singletons of Green-veined White, Meadow Brown, Small copper, Small Heath, Common Blue and a few Speckled Wood for the first hour or so.
The Sawfly larvae are still active on the Sorrel with no sign of any Copper larvae but a few fresh Coppers did turn up as the day slowly warmed up.
Despite the growing warmth though, there was still depressingly little butterfly activity and I struggled to reach double figures by lunch. I'd been wandering around the top end of banks common looking for Hairstreaks without much luck, just a few Meadow Brown and Small Copper. One of the Coppers was a familiar chap, first seen on the 19th August (the very distinctive chunk out the wing was taken quite early in his life). He was a bit paler today but in reasonable condition considering his age. He had a couple of bouts with a young whipper snapper but always successfully defended his corner of hedgerow.
![IMG_0091.JPG (81.73 KiB) Viewed 818 times A young whipper snapper!](./files/thumb_13753_299670a5079b6d7757f0d1ccfd7b125a)
- A young whipper snapper!
Not far away a small Crab Spider was having a late brunch.
I decided to look for White Admiral caterpillars and as I was leaving a particularly orange looking Meadow Brown caught my eye, flopping lazily around a clearing and since I was struggling with numbers today I decided to take a closer look at her. Turns out it was a Hairstreak! Even closer views of her in flight I was fooled as to her identity, her flight pattern was that lazy. A bit faded but still in reasonable condition, she was quite restless and only allowed a few record shots but at least I knew they were still around.
There was very little on the wing on the way to the WA cats. A female Small Copper was looking to lay, found a Sorrel leaf which she seemed to like then oddly crawled onto a neighbouring seedling (not sure of the species, perhaps a Speedwell, but definitely not Sorrel) and laid her egg?
Elsewhere a few Speckled Wood were enjoying sunny cleanings but in response to Pete's thread concerning Comma parasitism I kept an eye on the nettles along the paths. I've found an inordinate number of larvae recently but very little in the way of adults. I found two healthy looking pupae today, and only one fleeting visit from a fresh adult. Red Admirals are also unusually thin on the ground here and have been for some time now, very unusual for Bookham in my experience.
I managed to locate my two remaining WA cats, the older one looking like he's about to moult into fourth instar, the younger a healthy looking third.
The old egg I found is still firmly attached to the leaf.
It had warmed up considerably now but even so, apart from the Speckled Woods the only butterfly seen was a Red Admiral who was disturbed by a passing couple and vanished over the trees.
The warmth hadn't woken up many more butterflies at Banks Common, a sprinkling of Whites to add to the Brown's and Coppers. I did see another (maybe the same) Hairstreak but this time she stayed out of camera range.
A slow meander back to the station produced a definite second Hairstreak, again looking for all the world like a meadow Brown from a distance.
Half an hour later, close to the station I found a comma willing to pose, pretty sure it was an old
Hutchinsoni, and it acted its age too, struggling to sit comfortably as though it was losing the use of its legs (I know that feeling in the mornings!)
A couple of minutes later another pretend Meadow Brown appeared. She sat for a bit before fluttering off only for a Hornet to show a bit too much interest in her and she made a sharp exit over the hedge.
Brown Hairstreak 0 - Bugboy 3 (agg 2-14)
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)