Thanks again, Neil - I will continue to envy you your Mountain Ringlets and the NBA though!
Tuesday 17th June: Part One. With a sunny day forecast, I managed to squeeze out another day off work. After dropping Elliot at school, I sped off towards Oxford and arrived at Whitecross Green Wood soon after ten. With the sun breaking through nicely, I headed for the hotspot near the pond, and within a few minutes had seen half a dozen Black Hairstreaks. They started to come down onto the dogwood flowers and posed quite well, though most seemed rather worn.
I was joined by a gentleman from the Midlands whose first visit and sighting of this butterfly this was - he was very pleased to find them so easily. We in turn were joined by another group of folk, including the Chair of Butterfly Conservation, David Dennis. We were then treated to some unusual behaviour from the butterflies. Two Hairstreaks came down to the ground and settled on the grass, one of them for several minutes.
No one could fathom out what they were doing before they returned to more characteristic perching high in the blackthorn. I then spotted a much newer individual on a dogwood on the other side of the path, and it sat there happily nectaring for some while as many pictures were taken from every angle. The consensus was that this one was a female.
I decided to investigate one of the side paths off the main one, and it quickly passed through a thicket of mature blackthorn. Emerging into a sunny gap with brambles, I soon encountered several more Hairstreaks, one worn male on a bramble flower and a newer female sitting low down on a leaf.
The latter then flew into the blackthorn opposite, and spent a long while low down just wandering amongst the branches.
Returning to the main path, another group of enthusiasts had appeared, and were admiring another Hairstreak on the dogwood - this one seemed fresher than any of the others I'd seen earlier.
All in all, I must have seen at least a dozen different butterflies, and for the first time got some reasonable photos.
Whitecross is not all about Black Hairstreaks: there were dozens of Large Skippers (Not one of the Skippers I looked at was a Small or Essex Skipper, so they appear not to be out here yet), including a mating pair.
I also glimpsed two different White Admirals flying high up in the trees, and there were Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Speckled Woods, Small Tortoiseshells and Marbled Whites.
Finally, I saw both a male and a female Brimstone, and back at the car park a Red Admiral was cruising around.
With the afternoon ahead, I decided to stop off on the way back at Aston Rowant (Part Two coming up...)
Dave