Brown Hairstreak sighted at Ravensroost Meadow

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:05 pm

Two individuals sighted. One took off and flew to the other side of the hedge. It was low down originally so was probably a female.
A second was a bit more accommodating and I shot the photos below. The poor thing, a female, was very tatty but still looking around for egg-laying locations.
Park in the Ravensroost Wood car park but don't go west into the wood, head north into the meadow past the information sign at the gate.
Head north to the end of the first field and through the five bar gate towards the left.
Continue north to the far end of the second field and you'll see two oak trees midway along the top hedge, one large and one smaller to its left. I saw the first BH to the left of the smaller oak, and the second midway between the two. The second flitted around several spots all below four feet high. It only rested on blackthorn.
They are VERY difficult to spot as when at rest they look a bit like a dead blackthorn leaf and they don't always perch where you can see them. I was lucky to see one land. If I hadn't I'd have walked right past it.
Grid reference for the car park is: SU024877
Grid for the actual spot is: SU026881

alex mclennan · Post by **alex mclennan** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:36 pm

Hi Eccles
Loved the photos. She looks like she is on her last legs!! Which makes me wonder who has got the tattiest, raggiest, most worn-out butterfly pic??!!

My offering is this ringlet I recently saw (and it was still flying!)

Alex.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:43 pm

Hi Alex. You're right, she was a rather tired looking individual, but I was still glad to get not only a definite spot but some photos as well. I was able to shoot from several different angles while she was investigating egg-laying spots, then she paused and opened her wings and basked for a moment so that I could take a pair of shots then flew away.

The site is very well thought out: there are two large ponds on the edge of the meadows, one of which has an island in the middle containing blackthorn that is maintained to keep young growth going, and it's a hot-spot for brown hairstreak. This pond is fenced off, and because the spot is an island in the pond anyway, it doesn't get disturbed by cattle or people. There are long hedgerows all around the meadows that are a mix of hawthorn, blackthorn with the odd ash and oak. Blackthorn is the more prolific of the two hedgerow species. This means there's some propagation out from the island.

Now I know what to look for and where to look I hope to have a chance for some better condition specimens next year.

markatbath · Post by **markatbath** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:56 am

excellent , well done on finding the brown hairstreaks,further to my post on cloatley meadows a freind of mine was there on wednesday and managed to photograph three individuals all of which were in good condition.lets hope they are still there on monday
regards
mark

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:58 pm

I visited Cloatley Farm today and trawled the site as far as I was able. I saw one definite and one possible in two and a half hours of grinding through thistle, horsetail and bramble. I didn't get any pictures either.
The definite was most likely a male as it was flying high and settled out of sight at the top of a blackthorn bush. The possible might have been a small copper as I only got a glimse of it before it disappeared.

Just on the off chance I popped back round to Ravensroost Meadow but it was getting late by then, around 2:45 pm, and there were none visible there either by then. There are loads of small coppers there though, especially around the pond.