Brown Hairstreak at Warmley Forest Park

[eccles]

I know it's late in the season and I didn't quite believe it with the last two visits ( http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/v ... .php?t=739 ) but I'm as convinced as I can be that brown hairstreak is at Warmley Forest Park near Bristol. There is plently of blackthorn that is in the slightly scruffy state that the butterflies apparently like, with lots of sucker growth at ground level. There are young mixed deciduous trees nearby with several ash and oak.
I got to the location that I checked out yesterday about 11am this morning and almost immediately saw one flying at about head height along a track between the young trees and the blackthorn. Flight was fast but with very erratic dipping and bobbing. It disappeared by or on an ash tree.

Other butterflies currently in the vicinity are speckled wood and small copper but neither look very much like BH. Small copper are substantially smaller and paler in flight than BH, and tend to fly low along open grass, athough they can suddenly veer up and over a hedge. Except when startled, speckled wood flap their wings more slowly and fly in a more leisurely meandering manner. They're larger than BH and greyish brown in flight. The gold colour of BH visible in flight was unmistakeable, especially when I was buzzed by one or two which veered off at the last second.


Within the space of an hour I sighted maybe a dozen although many sightings may have been of the same individual. Each sighting was lost when it settled. Sometimes one appeared to settle at just above ground height but I still couldn't find it. There are no nectaring plants around the location now which means they have no incentive to show themselves, and, needless to say, I got no photographs. By 12:30pm they had all disappeared completely.

Weather permitting I'll get back there again tomorrow, if possible a little earlier than today to get a GPS location, and who knows, maybe a photo, although judging by today's fruitless chasing around I don't hold out much hope for the latter.

All this leads to two questions, should I inform Butterfly Conservation in case this is a new site for the species, and when and where should I look for eggs to confirm a breeding colony?

[eccles]

Further, I have a grid reference ST672738
Subsequent visits yesterday and today revealed around half a dozen sightings yesterday and just three today. Today's sightings may have been a single individual which was sporadically flying over the space of about half an hour before noon. Still no photos. There are still a few potential nectaring flowers around with ragwort, hedge parsley and scabious but they seemed uninterested in them.

[Matsukaze]

I have seen similar-looking insects over the last month or so - similar in size and habits to the Holly Blue (flying at over head height in and around trees) but coloured a kind of pale orange, like a Small Heath.

Could this be Brown Hairstreak? It seems unlikely as the species is not known from the immediate area and I understand it to be an elusive species not given to flying in the open much.

I understand the male of the Vapourer moth is about the right size and colour, and flies at about the right time, but I'm not familiar with this species.

[eccles]

In my sightings there seemed to be a strong preference to fly over and into blackthorn and ash, and I didn't see them at any other spots on the reserve at all, even where there was blackthorn. I have seen and photographed a single BH female, albeit a bit tatty, at Ravensroost Meadow but that was my only definite sighting. Since I haven't had the experience to watch how they fly I cannot be absolutely sure this local sighting was the same species. They certainly looked like butterflies, but if vapourers fly like butterflies it could have been them as you say. The example in the UKMoths website looks a little dark in comparison though. I'll look for eggs in a month or two.

[Cotswold Cockney]

In my sightings there seemed to be a strong preference to fly over and into blackthorn and ash, and I didn't see them at any other spots on the reserve at all, even where there was blackthorn. I have seen and photographed a single BH female, albeit a bit tatty, at Ravensroost Meadow but that was my only definite sighting. Since I haven't had the experience to watch how they fly I cannot be absolutely sure this local sighting was the same species. They certainly looked like butterflies, but if vapourers fly like butterflies it could have been them as you say. The example in the UKMoths website looks a little dark in comparison though. I'll look for eggs in a month or two.

Good point for identification.

Male Vapourers usually fly vigorously and continuously in their incessant search for the flightless females. Often making fast circles with their flight pattern well clear of the trees and bushes. Never seen Brown Haistreaks fly that way, usually lower and much less vigorously closer to or on the bushes, trees and undergrowth.

They, like many butterflies including A.iris, will sometimes feed on 'Honeydew'... those sticky secretions aphids expell when feeding on the plants which smothers leaves and twigs with that sticky covering ~ and your car if you park under trees, particularly Limes in towns and cities...

[eccles]

The individuals I saw took short but vigorous flights lasting just a few seconds at a time, each time diving into blackthorn or ash.
I have been back to Warmley on two occasions to look for BH eggs that I've been told are quite conspicuous when the leaves have been shed. On neither occasion did I see a single egg, so I'm resigned to believing that the species was most likely male vapourer.
Never mind, at least I know Ravensroost Meadow in Wiltshire has them, having photographed that rather tatty looking female there, so I'll be back there in August looking for them again. I'll keep an eye on the Warmley site as well though. You never know...