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Brown Hairstreak – Favourite Photo 2022

Week 2

Where did that week go? If it carries on like this it’ll be the new season before we know it!

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Here we go!

Have a goodun

Wurzel
P.S. You might want to select your Favourite first so you can save it for the grand finale in 20 weeks time…

After seeing my first Suffolk brown hairstreaks last year, I hoped to see them again before I returned to Switzerland. Sadly, despite good weather on the day, a late August trip to the same sites produced nothing.

My first chance to go hairstreak hunting in Switzerland came on 11th September, when I found this huge female at a site where I often find eggs. She was the size of a meadow brown and really brilliant in colour, immediately making everything seem right in the world.



Guy

Until recently Brown Hairstreak has had a pretty restricted distribution in Hampshire, confined to two small areas in the extreme West and East of the county. In the past three or four years this species seems to have broken out of its eastern stronghold around Noar Hill with a number of sightings and egg records down the Meon valley. This prompted me to look for eggs at suitable, Blackthorn rich, locations in the Portsdown Hill area which is right on my doorstep. In the past three years I have found very small numbers of eggs (one in the first year!) in one particular location which in turn prompted me to look for adults in the flight season.
Up until this year it has been a fruitless task but this August I was delighted to find two egg laying females on different days, probably the first ones to be found by design here.
Not the best specimen/photo but a very special one for me.
Kind Regards
Mark

Brown Hairstreak

Oh dear only two weeks in and already I’ve capitulated and broken my ‘single’ photo rule (roll). But I just couldn’t choose between these two shots. Both came from Shipton Bellinger and from the first part of the Brown Hairstreak season before they get their second wind as it were and head on into September. Brostreaks were tough work this year and though I did reasonably well shot wise I daren’t look at the number of steps/miles it took to get said images – I think I had my highest ever ‘mile to Brostreak’ ratio!

The first was actually the second that I saw having encountered an unexpected Brostreak in the Secret Garden the day before. This individual was hanging around and looking quite sorry for itself in the Nettle Bed which was also looking very remorseful and dried to a crisp. I chose this one because it was reasonably fresh and the light showed up the scales giving it a furry look.
I chose the second as she was an absolutely splendid looking creature and behaved impeccably. Another couple had put me onto a female that sat wings closed tightly whereas this one came down and opened up almost on demand! She was such a people pleaser I had to include her in the ‘Favourite’ selection.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

These two photos are part of a sequence that I took of a very obliging female Brown Hairstreak. She settled right next to me at the edge of the path in Chambers Farm Wood, Lincolnshire - a famous haunt for the species. After basking open-winged for a while she hopped onto the main stem of the blackthorn and proceeded to walk along it looking for that characteristic fork in the twig where they almost always lay their eggs. These two shots show her positioning herself at the fork, then moving away with the egg clearly visible. Isn't nature wonderful!

Managed to see a real fresh one on 11th August at West Williamston, Pembrokeshire:

Not a particularly good photo but one of only two shots I got of the only individual that I saw in 2022. This was a surprise sighting at Arnside Knott when we were up there in early August.
I have been aware for a number of year now that Brown Hairstreaks are regularly seen at Gait Barrows following an unauthorised release there a number of years back. Apparently there were also sightings at Arnside Knott last year and when I was up there this year a coupleof people told me one (or maybe two) had been spotted up near the trig point. There seems to be some debate as to whether these are from a further release or whether they have found there way here from Gait Barrows which is only a few miles away as the BH flies.
I was tempted to have a look and on a fairly dull and breezy day I found a male tucked up undeneath a hemp agrimony flower head. Unfortunatly, before I could get a better shot, a strong gust of wind sent him up and he disappeared up into the nearby canopy.
Cheers,

Neil.

By all accounts a dire season for Brown Hairstreaks this year, certainly for me, only finding 3 individuals in total! This female from Pulborough was the only one that posed.