Checked the live webcams at both Tenby and Pembroke Dock before deciding to chance a visit to West Williamston. The weather was lovely until the turn off to Tenby and by the time I arrived at the nature reserve it was overcast with little sign of improvement.
At least it wasn't raining, so I made my way onto the foreshore and towards the little glade where the female Brown Hairstreaks regularly descend to lay their eggs on the Blackthorn suckers.
The sun DID come out in the glade and after about ten minutes I saw what I think was a male Brown Hairstreak flying from the top of a hawthorn bush towards one of the ash trees. Shortly after, another small butterfly flew towards the larger hawthorn bush at the entrance to the glade and there was a brief aerial joust as it disturbed another small butterfly that had been perched atop this bush. I lost the first one but the other briefly settled and it was indeed a Brown Hairstreak, however it was impossible to get a shot of it as it was sheltering amongst the leaves and I lost sight of it fairly quickly.
I walked to the limestone knoll at the end of the site in cloudy, and now fairly breezy conditions. There were a couple of Hedge Browns flying, and I saw a single Common Blue too.
Remembering what Sussex Kipper had advised last year, I made sure I was back in the little glade before 11.30am and I got one of the chairs out and sat down.
There weren't many butterflies on the wing here - a few Green Veined Whites, two Red Admirals, a Speckled Wood and a Comma. I waited over an hour and shot up when I saw what I thought was my first female BH of the day, but it turned out to be a Small Copper.
The clouds by now were starting to thin out and the sunny periods became longer. Soon, the sky became clear towards the south west, and the only drawback now was the strength of the wind. I waited patiently, ignoring the Hedge Browns and the solitary Comma which had set up territory in the glade. Eventually, at 1.05pm, down came a female Brown Hairstreak.
She was crawling along the branches of the suckers and arching her abdomen, but I didn't see any egg being deposited. After a while, she flew onto some ferns and basked briefly.
Sadly, she never opened her wings completely - this was about the best I was treated to:
Then, off she flew to check out another potential spot for her eggs, and this time she
did lay one.
She then spent more time crawling through the twigs before fluttering up onto the hawthorn where I'd earlier seen a male.
Right at this moment I heard a voice behind me. It was another butterfly enthusiast come to see the Brown Hairstreaks. He'd been on plenty of egg hunts but had never seen an adult. Well, he broke his duck as the female was still visible in the higher branches of the hawthorn, but she soon fluttered off and although we both sat around for another half hour no more were seen (if only he'd arrived 5 minutes earlier when she was laying).
I said my goodbyes and wished him luck as the clock hit two, and made my way back to the car after having first explored the other likely looking area nearer the entrance to the foreshore.
Sadly, no further BHs were seen but there were a few more Speckled Woods, another Small Copper and a first Small Tortoiseshell of the day. It was a whole lot different to my visit to this site on the corresponding Sunday last year when there were the best part of a hundred Tortoiseshells nectaring on the line of Sea Asters near the high tide mark. There were also a few Silver Washed Fritillaries last year, but I didn't see any today.
. I would say I wish I'd gone, but the with the forecast changing so much this week and a long day on Saturday we never did give it much thought. In the end the forecast was good in South Wales but not particularly in Pembrokeshire 
. And we were knackered 
) to see another butterfly season on the wane, still there's now't we can do about it, so I refused to let thoughts of September and impending Autumn deflate me 
and decided to visit the largest natural lake in southern Wales, Llangors Lake. The weather forecast was happily wrong and instead of showers we had lovely sunshine 
and I strolled around the lakeside meadows seeking out butterflies and dragonflies and enjoying the superb scenery.
So Mynydd Llangors is mountain above the church in the swamp, can you remember me explaining to you and Karen that every Welsh place name had meaning...so endeth the lesson 
