Site Visit: Kingsley - 4th May 2018
Part I: Kingsley Common
Two male Large Whites having a fight in flight. Two male Holly Blues arguing over the best position on a prime, mature, fruiting Holly. Two male and one female Orange Tip and one female Specked Wood.
It has to be said this location should be better than this at this time of year but it was OK today.
Part II: Kingsley Old Churchyard
Two male Holly Blues on the yews. One repeatedly came down to the Bluebells. He was a bit tatty but seeing a Holly Blue on a Bluebell has to be good.
One female Brimstone also enjoying a Bluebell.
A Green-veined White also visited a Bluebell fleetingly but I could not get a picture.
Then an Orange Tip did the same.
A male Speckled Wood also visited the churchyard.
And three Green Hairstreaks, I presume all males because at one point there was a 3-way jousting match going on between them. They too liked to come down onto the Bluebells.
I mentioned in a previous post my observations regarding some of the members of the Lycaenidae that perform a behaviour of wing-rolling. I have in the past seen the following do the wing-roll: Small Blue, Purple Hairstreak, Holly Blue, Common Blue, Adonis Blue and only once, a Chalkhill Blue. I have now as of today also seen a Green Hairstreak do it but it moved its hindwings in a circular motion while holding is forewings still. All the others moved their forewings.
![DSCF4588.JPG (2.88 MiB) Viewed 79424 times Green Hairstreak wing roll step 1](./files/thumb_16593_0486bb3010ee06dcf30c836e089d9370)
- Green Hairstreak wing roll step 1
![DSCF4591.JPG (3.32 MiB) Viewed 79424 times Green Hairstreak wing roll step 2](./files/thumb_16593_19a2ab3b86a5041d3b28c9300ca1ad5d)
- Green Hairstreak wing roll step 2
These were my first Green Hairstreaks of the year and so this as usual gives me the excuse to include here some pics from the past and some survey data.
As you know the Green Hairstreak always rests with its wings firmly shut showing the bright green off to its fullest. It is a nondescript brown on top which can only be seen in flight. This pic is a video still shot.
![Green Hairstreak - upperside.jpg (182.36 KiB) Viewed 79424 times Upper-side of a Green Hairstreak in flight](./files/thumb_16593_68522dedb8776841f296d48b2ef9dddb)
- Upper-side of a Green Hairstreak in flight
They never seem to fly very high, anywhere from ground level to just above head height is usual in my experience, but when they stop, the green of the wing acts as perfect camouflage against the background of green leaves so even if I am right in front of one, I often won't see it until it moves.
I have seen them land on sand at Broxhead, presumably warming up on it to recharge their energy before zooming off once more. And zooming is what they do best.
Often is the time I am aware a Green Hairstreak has just sped past me because it looks like a coppery-green leaf blowing laterally in a strong breeze rather than a more typical butterfly flutter.
![Green Hairstreak - sexes alike (8).jpg (2.04 MiB) Viewed 79424 times On Sand at Broxhead](./files/thumb_16593_b69ea58e7c79c96291de7ab0ecb4094a)
- On Sand at Broxhead
![Green Hairstreak - habitat (13).JPG (4.19 MiB) Viewed 79424 times On a tree at Beacon Hill](./files/thumb_16593_61522bae00d1224eb792c06667c916ee)
- On a tree at Beacon Hill
![Green Hairstreak - sexes alike (10).JPG (3.59 MiB) Viewed 79424 times On a shrub at Noar Hill](./files/thumb_16593_ef2c09cdad47497cc24ba7a42ec5b163)
- On a shrub at Noar Hill
I have found they tend to stick to one area. At Noar Hill I once watched three Green Hairstreaks for ages all flitting around a single juniper bush in the centre of the reserve. One seemed to leave, but all he did was circle around the back of the bush, only to appear again on the other side! The same happened at St Catherine's Hill on a bush there. Its like a scaled-down version of a Brown Hairstreak master tree, a master shrub in fact.
When a male meets a virgin female there appears to be no lengthy courting ritual. One gives a brief wing flutter revealing the brown upper sides of its wings momentarily and copulation begins immediately back to back, both with wings firmly up. Its probably the male that gives the wing-flutter in order to waft scent in her direction but I do not know for sure. They do not seem to fly off anywhere but stay on the master shrub to mate. Like most butterflies they remain in this position for at least 30 minutes and can fly joined together if the need arises, say to avoid a predator or an overly-keen butterfly enthusiast.
![Green Hairstreak - mating (19).JPG (3.18 MiB) Viewed 79424 times Green Hairstreaks mating](./files/thumb_16593_dd6a6d89cc73ac5a1e5fc64085668136)
- Green Hairstreaks mating
In the picture of the mated pair above, the individual on the left appears smaller so one might conclude it is the male.
Because the colour is metallic, even this is not always an indicator of gender. The colour and intensity changes with the angle of the wing to the sun. The photo below shows the same mated pair from a different angle. Neither photo has been colour-enhanced; this is a real change in the colour due entirely to the angle the picture was taken.
This picture below seems to show a female perching on all six legs, but it sometimes is not obvious to me as the male sometimes places its front legs down as though perching on them as the one in last picture of the mated pair above seems to have done.
![Green Hairstreak - sexes alike (9).JPG (2.5 MiB) Viewed 79424 times Female standing on all six legs](./files/thumb_16593_e4e9816fc804deb000ae0eb90882eee1)
- Female standing on all six legs
There follows a survey attached. Beacon Hill comes out best in Hampshire but of course numbers do vary year on year.
Non-butterfly snapshot of the day
One of the oaks along the Oak Ride on Kingsley Common has a trunk which branched into two and then remerged some time later to form a porthole!
![Porthole Oak (1).JPG (4.58 MiB) Viewed 79424 times The Porthole Oak](./files/thumb_16593_d4f9487c498a05d6340d8f22123bc648)
- The Porthole Oak