ernie f

[Janet Turnbull]

They're lovely shots Ernie, and I can't see the damage you speak of!
Janet

[trevor]

Too much to bear, Ernie, too much!.

[millerd]

Terrific shots of open-wing male Brown Hairstreaks, Ernie. They seem to be coming down from the trees readily everywhere at the moment, and you certainly took advantage there! They were up and about pretty early too - good thing you were as well.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Fantastic open wing Brostreaks Ernie Sometimes it's best to quit while you're ahead - if you'd hung around until the sun came out again they might not have behaved as well

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Thanks Janet - It's true at least one of the Brostreaks is pristine. Take a look though at my Aug 1st pics. In Brostreak pic 2 you can see a chunk is missing from the left forewing. In Brostreak pic 4 there is a white scratch mark on both the left forewing and left hindwing. I took a whole bunch of pics that day - not all of them posted, but there was another with nibble damage to its right forewing.

Sorry Trevor - But on the downside I haven't seen a female yet!

Dave - It's like my early start for the Purple Hairstreaks last month - I just can't get enough. Surprisingly Binswood for Purplestreaks and Noar Hill for Brostreaks and Greenstreaks are two of my closest Nature Reserves, and although they never seem to come down - I have a White Letter Hairstreak site in Chawton, the village next door to the town where I live. I seem to be surrounded by Hairstreaks of one kind or another.

Wurzel - Yep. And there is always tomorrow...

[ernie f]

Noar Hill again for Brostreaks.

Same place and same time as yesterday and the day before and guess what? None. Not a single male. I waited an hour (with Pauline for company) but no male Brostreaks for company. Then one hour later, around 9 am, a female landed just where the males had been the other day. You could almost hear her thinking "where are all the blokes". Like she had been invited to a party and was the only one to turn up.

Then not 50 paces away and on the other side of the same path, aha, now two or three males and no females!

I cannot tell if the males had just moved here or this was a new bunch because the pic I got today showed no wing damage to make a positive ID. They had better get their act together soon or we won't have any Brostreaks here next year at all.

Then even these disappeared. Where did they go? It appears they moved back and up onto an Oak tree and used it like an Ash. Just like a group of males I saw last year on the other side of the reserve use a Beech. This Oak was distant so the pic is not going to win the Wildlife Photographer of the year competition, but at least it proves it WAS a Brown Hairstreak and not a late-flying Purple Hairstreak. I never expected to get a pic of a Brostreak perched beside an acorn!

To (mis)quote a Father Ted TV comedy joke. Is it small or is it far away? In this case, both.

On my exit I saw another Brostreak in the corner beside the exit gate but it didn't stop, and neither did I.

On my way home, a Red Kite graced the sky.

[trevor]

Don't worry, Ernie, the way your going female Brown Hairstreaks will flaunt
themselves in front of your camera when they get going. It's about now that
lovely fresh females should start to be seen, some fresh from pupation.

Good luck, and stay safe,
Trevor.

[bugboy]

They way things are going I think it will be raining Brown Hairstreaks soon like it was raining Purples 6 weeks ago!

[ernie f]

Trevor, Bugboy - You are right. The Noar Hill numbers appear to be creeping ever upwards.

[ernie f]

OK, so another morning at Noar Hill and more Brown Hairstreak news.

Yesterday I was not sure where the males went when I could not find them on the Hazel hedge but did find some further down the path on the Oak and on lower shrubs and trees in front of the Oak. Were they the same ones or not? Well today I still cannot prove it either way BUT I found one male buzzing around a medium sized Ash and lower foliage opposite the Hazel hedge. Here he is...

He left the tree, zoomed across to the Hazel hedge, flitted back and forth in search of females and then came back to the Ash tree, alone and feeling dejected. My guess is the ones I found congregating on the Hazel a couple of days ago, did in fact disperse very slightly to the immediate environs and in all probability the ones around the Oak ARE the same bunch as were on the Hazel. As I say, I cannot prove it - but the probability has increased that this is the case.

I then nipped across to the Beech tree beside the lower gate for the first time this year. I am usually able to find them there every year and indeed found two male Brostreaks on it.

This increased my Brostreak count here this year to a definite 8 so far. 7 males and 1 female.

Also this nice Small Copper stopped by.

[kevling]

Ernie,

Some great photos of the male Brown Hairstreaks. A good early morning species, that's for sure. I don't own a photo of a male yet, but they are on the wing in my area, so hopefully I might break my duck before the week is out. If not can I borrow one of yours

Kind Regards
Kev

[ernie f]

Kev - I just sent Goldie a Brown Argus at her request and now I have people asking me to send them Brown Hairstreaks!!!
Soon I'll have no butterflies of my own to look at. But because it's you asking, I'll send one this time - just don't make a habit of it.

[Wurzel]

Great shots Ernie Interesting that yours seem to be turning up early in the morning, in normal weather ie not in a heat wave I usually start seeing them around 10:30-11am - the ones at Shipton certainly like a lie-in compared to the Noar Hill Gang They're seem to be a bit better behaved at Shipton as well

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[kevling]

Haha, you should feel flattered by all the requests Ernie. I'll get a male to go with my female, if I stake out my location for long enough.

Kind Regards
Kev

[David M]

Good to know you're seeing a few Brown Hairstreaks, ernie. Must admit, I too wonder where the males disappear to. They can reliably be found squabbling in the tree canopy for 7-14 days at the beginning of the flight season, but then they mysteriously disappear.

[ernie f]

Kev - Hope you get to see a female soon.
Wurzel - That's interesting. The ones on the Beech Tree at Noar Hill last year were there from 9.30 - 11.30 am, but once they start whizzing about in the warmth of the day - I hardly ever see them come down. The males that is.
David - Well they certainly ALL did a disappearing trick today at Noar Hill. I was there from 9-10 am and saw none at all, but it was already 24 degrees, so they were probably shading themselves. Or I was just unlucky.

[ernie f]

I was at Noar HIll today from 9.00-10.00 am and saw no Brostreaks and in fact little was flying about in the heat. Did see C&H Blues, S&L Whites, MB&G and Small Heath, but that was about it.

But before that from 7.00-8.30 am I was at Oxenbourne Down for Silver-spotted Skipper and for Chalkhill Blue. This post I focus on the SSS. I'll leave the CHB for later because there is a lot to say about it today.

In that 1 1/2 hours I can only be certain I saw just one SSS, but I saw it multiple times.

Warm enough for it to be up and about but not so hot that it didn't hang around for its picture to be taken.

[ernie f]

Oxenbourne – Part 2

There were many male Chalkhill Blue’s flitting about as the sun warmed them from about 7 am onwards. I ignored them to begin with as my target was the Silver-spotted Skipper. With the pictures of that under my belt I focussed my attention on the CHB’s. It was now about 45 minutes after 7 and the number of males had increased as if out of nowhere into the hundreds. The slope of the reserve on the hill at Oxenbourne is not large so it was like a sea of blue in places. On the lower part of the slope all hell broke loose. It looked as though a surge of females had just emerged and the males were on them right away. Each female had up to 4 suitors around her.

There were so many males converging you sometimes could not even see the poor female underneath them all.

I stood still and spotted five couples in-cop within a radius of 2 metres of me. It was an orgy.

One female was so fresh she hadn’t had time to straighten out her wings before they were upon her, battling for attention. I don’t think I have ever seen such curled wings. Most odd.

One male was just about to connect to her when another, very crafty male positioned himself between him and her, stopping him in his tracks.

But in the end, success, but which one it was I don’t know, and I don’t think she knew either.

There were so many males distracted by all the females that I managed to pick one up for a short while. He probably wondered what was going on but was reluctant to fly off straight away in case I was a female!

A moment later it was pretty clear to him that I wasn’t, so he pushed off.

So did I, satisfied with my morning’s work.

[Wurzel]

Cracking looking Silver Spots and Chalkhills Ernie Mind you that behaviour is shocking to our modest eyes but in the tropics some males of some species will actually find a chrysalis with a female that almost ready to emerge and they will rip open the pupal casing and copulate whilst the female is still in the chrysalis
More Brostreaks this morning at Shipton - first one turned up at 11am on the dot

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Wurzel - amazing info about males copulating with "unborn" females. Incredible.