Finding green hairstreaks

[Piers]

My sightings are all on chalkland; I have seen them on Hawthorn and Blackthorn (picture) hedges and bushes posing and nectaring and fighting for airspace.

GH_6_low_Burwell_17_04_2010.jpg

N

Hi Nick,

That Green Hairstreak really is a beauty, really nice heavy 'hairstreak' marking, and by the looks of it nicely marked on the underside of the forewings too. They rarely come with a heavier marking than that.

Felix.

[NickB]

Hi
Yes - I was lucky; it was a fine example & very fresh - most likely emerged that or the previous day, when I saw the first report on local BC site.
The original was very dark -I had to under-expose my shots a lot as the dear little thing was between me and the sun and I couldn't get to the other side. (I also took my 200mm lens as I knew it would be difficult to get near them from previous experience!)
A good example of why it is good to shoot in RAW - post-processing in CameraRAW/Photoshop allows you to re-gain the detail and adjust the levels to get a better dynamic range - Levels is a good and easy tool to start with. The result also shows a little golden light on the butterfly from the blossoms - a natural reflector. Will post original cropped to size to show what can be recovered, if you shoot in RAW especially.

See you all tomorrow...
N

[Wildmoreway]

One interesting location where I found them about 30 years ago was right by the bunkers where the trains discharged coal at Ironbridge Power Station in Shropshire, they were always low on the ground and I have actually seen them fly beneath the rails between the sleepers..

The main site I used see them at though was on Bickerton Hill in South Cheshire where they were usually flying around the Bilberry or resting on silver birch saplings.

[Jack Harrison]

Some 15 years ago, I was stationary at traffic lights on the northern edge of Hatfield, Herts. Over the shrubs in the adjacent Tesco car park was the unmistakeable sight of a Green Hairstreak. I changed my plans so instead of returning home direct, I went to Tesco.

Could I find that Green Hairstreak again? No way!

Jack