Continuing my story of the summer, on June 29th having looked at my Emperor pictures first thing, I decided to follow up a local tip for White-letter Hairstreaks which had been reported in County. The tip was sufficiently detailed and exciting that I checked the site out on Google maps and worked out the postcode...
I was excited as I had been considering driving over to a far-away site that Bugboy had given me details about previously. W-l's have always been a butterfly I encountered infrequently and never to get a decent picture of - so a challenge. Getting to Essex would mean several hours of driving and navigating the M25 - neither of which was a fun prospect. Staying local seemed too good to be true.
But it was a hot day (weren't they all!) and I planned some alternatives if I was disappointed at site one and set off on a 20 mile trip.
The site was close to a town, just by a ring-road, some rough ground with ditches, scrub brambles and nettles with a couple of scrubby elms( yards away on the other side of the ditch). Behind them was a security fenced factory/warehouse unit and lorry park. So a perfect location to be taking pictures...
But on arrival I had seen fast and dramatic hairstreak action at the upper parts of the tree. And as I checked it over I saw dozens of hairstreaks. Looking worn, bird-pecked and small even with my telephoto. I took pictures and looked for any routes that I could navigate to get me closer, without breaking my neck. There were none.
After checking out all of the adjacent hedging for 50 yards in each direction my eye fell upon a bright yellow plant, ragwort about 20 feet from the elms and accessible to me (with a few stings and scratches). On it were numbers of black beetles, several hover flies and an absolutely perfect hairstreak.
I took a number of shots on the flowers and this one on a nearly plant. May have all been the same insect. It did keep flying off and returning as this was the only flower for some distance.
Not only was I able to take photos I also shot video and changed lenses, it was one of those moments to remember. I was pleased with the images and from a huge number I chose a few to allow me to portray the charm of this butterfly.
They are edited to simplify the background a little and remove the black beetles, which did draw your eye a little too much!
Later in the summer I found even more W-l's at Bucknell Wood, but more on those later.