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After a handful of adult sightings in the Edenbrige area over the last couple of years and about a dozen eggs found over the same period in two areas along the Kent / Sussex border , an email from fellow enthusiast Eric saying that whilst on a bird walk on the 13th. September in the Keston area , he had seen 3 adult BH and photographed one , did not come as a complete surprise , but very exciting news .
I searched the site where the photograph was taken the following afternoon , finding a few eggs but no adults . Returning in better conditions the following day , I found and photographed my first Kent BH along an overgrown bridleway . Over the next few days several more adult sightings and with the help of fellow enthusiasts , lots of eggs which we tagged with tape on the plants . I made contact with the landowner and the news was not good , as the entire lenght of the bridleway was to be flailed by a contractor over the winter . I contacted Kent BC re the situation and asked if harvesting the eggs and rewiring them after the flail was feasible ? They replied that it had worked in the past and was worth a try . That evening I contacted three more enthusiasts to rally support . Visiting the site with Martin the following day to talk over the possibility of collecting and protecting the eggs , we came to the conclusion that it was the only thing to do . As a backup , we also decided to wire 3 batches of eggs into suitable stands of young blackthorn in the local area .
On 26th.Sep. , Eric , Keith , Martin , Terry , Philip and myself met on the bridleway at 10 o'clock and by the time we reached the far end , we had harvested 391 eggs and had 2 adult sightings which pleased all concerned . Before leaving the area , some of us searched other hedges on the farm where more eggs were found but left in situ . Over the next days , the eggs were wired and the three batches were wired into the local blackthorn .
I carried on visiting into October , finding another c50 eggs and two adult sightings on the 5th. proved to be the last of the season .
In all a total of 16 adult sightings , that I know of , admittedly some could be doubles , and 438 eggs harvested .
Passing the bridleway in February this year , it was obvious that the flail had done it's work , with hardly a sign of the young blackthorn that covered the flloor of the bridleway back in the autumn , and the side hedges flailed back to main trunks and branches . I wired eggs back onto those young plants that did survive , but I had to find new homes in the other hedges around the farm for the majority . I must admit I had a feeling of relief when the last egg was returned to nature , rather than sitting in my carport .
So now it's a wait till late summer , fingers crossed , hoping that the Brown Hairstreak will excite again this year .

Superb effort Greenie ! I,d seen in the Kent BC ,newsletters that Brown Hairs had been re-found in the Biggin Hill
area of Kent ,so with any luck it may slowly spread out even further !
I check more in hope than anything else ,one or two likely (and former ) looking sites near me ,but as yet no joy !
Once again well done ,great effort ,lets hope the Brown Hairs pay you( and your pals ) back well ,later in the summer !!
Regards Allan.W..

Great news. It's always good to hear about butterflies increasing their range, although with Brown Hairstreaks being so secretive it wouldn't be surprising to find them in other places where they hadn't previously been reported.

Well done Greenie for all the hard work.
That species owes it to you.
I would have been proud to have participated in the effort.
Chris

I tried to attach two photos to the original entry , but they proved to be too big to upload .
I have managed to reduce them and giving it another go . The bridleway last autumn . The track can just be seen bottom left of centre .
After the flail .

Oh dear ,that is sad ! I wonder how the Hairstreaks will fare now ??
Regards Allan.W.

Hi Allan ,
The BH eggs were harvested in September when the bridleway looked as in the first picture .
After the contractor flailed the bridleway in February , shown in the second picture , the eggs
were returned and wired into the small amount of blackthorn that survived the flail , and also
into blackthorn in nearby hedges on the farm .
The hope is that further management won't be necessary in the near future and that the BH numbers
will increase and colonise new areas , hopefully away from the flail !
Cheers Greenie

Sorry Greenie ! I must have had a funny five minutes !! You did explain things perfectly well in your original post ,just me being a bit thick ! I reckon . Regards Allan.W.

Yes it was an effort, and i found 2 eggs laid on Hawthorn as well

here are a few images from the day we marked and harvested to eggs.
added to the 230 eggs we had to rescue from cut Blackthorn at Hutchinsons Bank at the same time, it was a busy week. The wired in eggs and natural ones have been tagged so can be monitored closely at HB. The "Christmas Tree" a small Blackthorn with 19 eggs on it is in the centre of the picture

Visited two of the sites where eggs were wired into blackthorn on my way back home this afternoon .
With the plants coming into leaf , quite a job to find the wires . The good news is that 75%+ of eggs found on both sites have hatched . I hope to get to the other two sites in the next few days , and hopefully they will return similar numbers .
Greenie

Hi Greenie,
Would you be able to supply more detail as to where the bridle way was?
I walk from the Oakley road / Hayes farm area through Padmall wood to Keston and would like to change my route to see if I was able to sight Brown Hairstreak this year.

Dave

Hi Dave ,

The bridleway runs alongside Jackass Lane , fron the bottom of Fox Hill / Fox Lane ( side of the Fox PH ) , and runs towards Keston church .
The start of the bridleway is opposite the entrance to Walnut Tree Cottage , about 300 yards from the above junction , and just looks like a gap in the hedge on the left hand side . TQ409163
This section runs for about 200 yards up to the entrance to Fox Hill Farm . TQ411541
At this point you need to cross Jackass Lane to enter the longer section , about 780 yards .
The bridleway exits back onto Jackass Lane at the top of the hill TQ413541 , adjacent to where the Nash Circular Walk joins Jackass Lane .
Eggs and adults were found on both sections , but the majority of eggs / sightings , were on the higher ground of the long section .
Jackass Lane is a single track lane with passing places and no pavemnets , so care needed walking along the lane and imparticularly crossing .
There is nowhere to park along Jackass Lane , so it's either Keston Green / Commonside and down Fox Lane or Rectory Road near Keston church and walk along
Church Road / Jackass Lane , passing Blackness Lane on the left , to the bridleway exit on the left at the top of a rise .
Hope to see you along the bridleway in late summer , and good luck .

Cheers Greenie

Thanks Greenie, fantastic detail, which I hope to put to great use.
Many thanks
Dave

Like many places , the Brown Hairstreak emergence on the Kent / Surrey border has been almost non existent .That was until Thursday of last week , when a member of Kent Butterfly Conservation visited Down House at Downe , the home of Charles Darwin . During that visit , an adult BH was seen and photographed , nectaring on bramble , amongst the blackthorn onto which some of the eggs , rescued from a bridleway at Keston last autumn , were wired .Hopefully , this will be followed by more sightings on this and the other three chosen sites , weather permitting .
I have also recieved reports of two BH sightings at Hutchinsons Bank about the same time , just over the Surrey border .

Since the sighting at Down House , all four BH egg sites have been regularly checked . Last Sunday , Keith and myself visited all four , coming closest when at a site alongside a footpath in Keston , where Keith spotted a butterfly high in the Ash tree that stands high above the blackthorn , but with just binoculars we had to make it a ' probable ' as it never came any closer to be certain . I visited that site again this morning , but nothing at all was found . Moving on to the bridleway where the eggs were collected last autumn , things were very quiet , until in a spell of warm sunshine , a butterfly fluttered down onto the vegetation ahead of me . With binoculars , and just before it took off again , I had a pristine female BH in my view . By the time I got to her , she had landed high up on some roadside blackthorn which had avoided the flail . She headed along a side shoot and then down the main stem of the plant ,
before disappearing from sight , along with the sun , not to be seen again .
That's two sites down and two to show .
Of interest , on Monday's visit to the site at High Elms LNR , no BHs , but did have 3 Clouded Yellow and 7 Painted Lady .

The warm weather produced a number of BH sightings along the Jackass Lane bridleway . After the singleton on the Wed.21st. , things really got going on Thur.22nd. with 6 sightings which included 4 egg layers . On Fri.23rd. , two enthusiasts were treated to a ' lifer ' , and the two hour visit total rose to 5 , including a sighting for a KentBC couple . On Sat.24th. and with Keith's extra pair of eyes , we racked up 6 down on vegetation , of which 3 were egg laying , plus 3 fly byes . Before finishing the visit , the Chairman of KentBC stopped in , and we were able to point him in the right direction for a ' lifer ' too . In the heat today , 2 more down on vegetation , but they didn't hang around for long disappearing into the shade .
Keith and I have also been making visits to the three sattelite sites , but after the expectaion of the first sighting at Down House , a follow up has not been forthcoming . The other two sites have yet to produce . A worry in one way , but 14 of the 16 sightings last year were in September , the other two in early October , so it's a case of wait and hope , and keep visiting the sites .

Great stuff Greenie ,I must try to get up that way for a look ,love to see Brown Hairstreak in Kent (and I,ve got a week owing next week !) Regards Allan.W.

People on the Sussex BC site think the bad weather in early August has delayed hatching until the middle of last week, so the numbers should build up when the temp drops down to the lower to mid 20s. I checked 2 Possible Kent sites this morning, there is a lot of young growth on the hedge that eggs can be laid on. These 2 sites are halfway between Hutchinsons Bank and Nash, the farmland had some eggs a couple of years back at the sub-station site on the Kent/Surrey Border.

Site1 -edge of fields, Surrey Border is the trees in the distance. had 3 types of Prunus, including Blackthorn Site2
About 500 yards through a hedge, Footpath joins Layhams Road in 2 places.

For anyone tinking about visiting Jackass Lane bridleway in Keston over the weekend / next week , after 21 sightings of BH up to Saturday 24th. ,
there have only been four sightings this week , 2 on the 26th. and just 1 on the 28th. and today 29th.
Apart from being windier and a bit cooler , I have no explanation for such a steep fall in sightings .
Considering last year , the first sighting wasn't until 6th. September and the last on 5th. October , there is still plenty of time for things to change , and if they do , I will post that change here .

Cheers Greenie

I have searched the route from New Addington to the Jackass Lane/Nash site, Brown Hairstreaks are in colonies all the way where suitable habitat is found, today i added another 2 1km squares in Kent.