Cheers, Ernie - complete luck to find that pairing. The male found the female at the same moment I did, and wasted no time.
You're right Wurzel - the more behind I am means the more and varied the butterflies have been that I've seen! This must be a good thing...
Absolutely, David - local trips out are the staple, and the variety round here provides constant interest - sometimes within ten minutes of leaving the house. My local tally is up to 20 species this year, 14 of which I saw today - not bad at all.
However, on
Monday 17th June, the sun shone, and the forecast for the Thames Estuary area was particularly promising. A perfect day to head along the good old M25 to see the White-letter Hairstreaks at Hadleigh Country Park in Essex, plus the rest of what this excellent site has to offer. The journey was easy and as I went east, the sunnier it became. I parked as usual at Leigh-on-Sea station, and walked along the short piece of path bounded by brambles, and behind those the stands of elm trees. The bramble flowers were alive with Hairstreaks, as many as I've ever seen here and numbering in dozens. In amongst them were quite a few Holly Blues, behaving very similarly and today at least earning the title of honorary Hairstreak.
After getting a few photos, I carried on into the park, and walked up to Hadleigh Castle itself. There were lots of skippers flying, and aside from a handful of Large ones, all those I was able to positively identify turned out to be Essex.
There were also a selection of new Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns, and a total of 13 different species altogether.
The selection included this particularly dark Small Tortoiseshell.
I'll add the WLH selection in a separate post, but here's a taster...
Dave