Shipton Bellinger
A little over a week ago I and my girls had a meet up with Philzoid and his. After a game of hide and seek in the central car park we made the move over to Shipton Bellinger looking for Brown Hairstreaks. As we pulled into the car park the sun came and went and it felt pretty autumnal which is kind of appropriate for the final emerging butterfly of the season. So to avoid the nip in the air we set off up the track to the two hedges. Along the route we encountered plenty of whites, a Holly Blue doing the usual trick of staying up high and browns which would tease us by flying by and looking orangey when in flight. We both knew that they weren’t Brown Hairstreaks but it always paid to check them just in case, you never know...
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At the top of the track we found a large Bramble bush that was attracting lots of butterflies and representatives from the range of species that we had found so far. And then Philzoid saw something high up near to the very top of the track and the Master Tree. The fast, jinking flight reminded me of the White letters we’d seen earlier in the year but this one had a definite orangey appearance. So we’d bagged a Brostreak! Delighted but wanting more we carried on out to the open area. Here there were butterflies erupting form under our feet, tumbling off of flowers and flitting by us it was a fantastic sight. While the girls set up camp Philzoid and I mooched around on the turf before moving over to the hedge that borders the site. Highlights of the first foray included a lovely fresh Brown Argus that was so intent on feeding that it seemed to stand on it’s on proboscis and a Comma doing it’s very best at impersonating a dead leaf.
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- Only gone and got my proboscis trapped under my foot!
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There were other people around and when they all started peering into the hedge and gazing intently at something a few feet away with binoculars we thought we ought to find out was all the fuss was about. Okay to be honest we knew what it was going to be but it was still early in the visit so there would be plenty of time for us to find our own. Hence we sidled up and asked the old chestnut “anything about?” One of the group informed us that there was a brown Hairstreak, a male, low down on a bush and pointed out where in the hedge it was. Once they’d relocated it for us they moved off so Philzoid and I managed to make a gentle approach. He was a right little cracker posing with his wings open then half shut before moving to another perch and closing them while he fed. At this point we were joined by another observer who, having followed our pointing fingers proceeded to wade directly through the undergrowth to where it was perching. Or rather where it had been perching because all the commotion they’d caused had spooked it. I couldn’t believe it. I’d taken a good 5 minutes to get into position, edging around and picking my way around the bushes to avoid trampling them, slipping my foot down between the stems of the brambles, pausing at every foot step to check that I hadn’t disturbed it and that Philzoid had gotten some shots. Five minutes to cover a distance of about 2 metres and this bloke wades in taking two footsteps, ripping the undergrowth to shreds and spooking the butterfly in the process
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
! We did relocate further along the hedge but now it was much deeper in and only distance shots were possible.
I always like to read up on a species before venturing out into the field and most of the texts I’ve read all say how rare it is for males to come down from the tree tops and how you’ll hardy ever see males down on the deck and those Brostreaks that do come down are invariably female. Yet for the past three years at this site (and Alners Gorse) I’ve invariably seen and photographed male Brostreaks. Is this a particularly good site for the males to venture down at or is the literature in need of an update? Musing this and other things excitedly (and angrily) we continued walking along the hedge to see what else was about and whether we could find any other Brostreaks.
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- 3 species shot
On our mooching we encountered good numbers of blues and them seemed to be almost as numerous in places as the Meadow Browns. There were still Gatekeepers (or False Hairstreaks) around and the vanessids were represented by a Red Admiral, another Comma, and a brace a piece of Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell. An aged Small Skipper and Silver Washed Fritillary almost made it a full house. One Brown Argus was so fresh it had a little confused while it was flying as it looked almost like a Chimney Sweep at times. In flight it looked black on top and like a silver flash below. The blues also seemed to be bunching together around what looked like bark, but was probably very ancient dung.
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We reached almost the end of the hedge and were making our way back. Philzoid had gone back a bit more in order to show some of the girls what we’d seen as by now iPods and colouring had become a bit boring and their curiosity had been piqued. The sun was dipping in and out of the clouds and during one of the duller, noticeably cooler moments I stumbled across a Brimstone, wings open basking. I couldn’t believe it at first and thought first that I must be mistaken and second that it must be dead. Either way, this looked like a once in a life time opportunity, so I called out to Philzoid and he rushed over to partake in the possibly unique encounter. After what felt like an age (but was probably only a few minutes) the sun started to peak through the clouds, the temperature started to rise and it was off. It only flew a distance of about 3 metres and then quickly settled down to feed, this time with wings tightly shut in the more usual posture. Slightly stunned we carried on picking our way back to where the girls had made camp debating how that had happened. Was it that it suddenly got too cool so it had dropped, basking to desperately raise its temp?
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We carried on checking the Hedge observing every Hedge or Meadow Brown that would fly past just in case but the sun was staying in the clouds for longer and longer periods of time, the wind was picking up and it was starting to feel cooler again so we didn’t hold much hope. By now our wanderings along the hedge had brought us back to almost where we’d started. I remember last year Pauline put me onto a female quite close to the Ivy bush here and this year a path had been created (trampled) in by this same bush. Just on the off chance I took a few steps along it and then stopped abruptly. There in front of me at waist height was a gorgeous Brostreak. She had her wings held wide open in the classic field guide pose which I’ve been trying to capture for the last three years. I called out to Philzoid and we both took photo after photo. She moved around a little bit, only a few inches at a time and then closed her wings and started to nectar. After a while of this she took another wander, this time below the Bramble leaf, which possibly explains how they can just seemingly disappear at times. Sated and warmed she then took to the air and landed up a bit higher and just out of range but luckily before this all four girls had had a look so we bade her farewell and headed back to the girls camp for lunch.
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- Going...
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- Gone, apparently
It didn’t look like the cloud would shift so we made our way back to the play park near the car park so that the girls could have a mess around and we could get some lunch. Absolutely cracking stuff – the final “emerger” of the year, shots I’d always wanted in the bag and one hell of a surprise too! The day wasn’t over quite yet as we decided to head next to Five Rivers...
Have a goodun
Wurzel