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Week 2 Brown Hairstreak – Favourite Photo 2023

Well that week shot by and here we are ready to start round/week 2 of the Favourites thread!

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, again!

Have a goodun

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

Brown Hairstreak

This was taken in the tiny enclosure that borders the Bulford to Tidworth road behind the main hedge at Shipton Bellinger. I had a very successful season with the Hairstreaks this year and with the Brown Hairstreaks in particular s when it came to choosing my favourite photo of this species it was very hard but I went for this one as it was a twofer (perhaps I should have used it for the Brown Argus Fave?) and shows very unusual behaviour on the part of the Brown Argus – normally the most belligerent of butterflies. Dave and I were having a bit of a mooch elsewhere when Trevor put up the call and so walking quickly/running over we were greeted by this sight. I only managed a couple of distant shots before the Brown Argus came to its senses and reverted to its usual character! It also reminds me of a cracking day with cracking company!
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Lots of Brown Hairstreaks in our area this Autumn, had a sighting on todays workday. Here are a few shots from Hutchinsons Bank

This species appears to have had an exceptional season in the haunts where I usually find them. On 7th August, I was at Bookham, and there were males and females almost everywhere you looked. Consequently, it is tricky to pick favourites, but here goes with a full set from that day. Dave

Brown Hairstreak did not have such a good season here in the midlands as they appeared to have south of London with most reports I saw consisting of half a dozen or so at most seen at any site on any given day.
I only saw them myself on two occasions, first at Grafton Wood on August 10th when I briefly saw a single individual and only managed a poor record shot. I did also see a couple of possibles flying higher up but as Vapourer Moths are also present here they could easily have been males of this species so I will not claim them as definite.
My second time was during the Warwickshire BC open day at Ryton Wood Meadows on 19th August when approx half a dozen were seen in total during the day by various people around the site on what started out as a cool and cloudy day but brightened up in the afternoon. Of these I reckon I saw four different individuals, three females and one male and managed quite few photos, mostly of the females of which I have picked the two shots below of two of them.
Cheers,

Neil.

Last summer I was a frequent user of the A303, which was made bearable by breaks at Shipton Bellinger and BH entertainment before the trauma of the M25. A favourite is hard to choose, but I have settled on a very fresh female in great condition apart from a big peck out of her hind wings. I think she was a lucky girl.

I moved back to Switzerland in September 2022, after four years in Suffolk. My new home was in Leysin, where I've never lived (or even really visited) before, so I spent winter 2022-3 scouting for local blackthorn and evidence of brown hairstreaks. I soon found sites with eggs and visited in spring and summer to look for caterpillars. This is my favourite picture, of a newly moulted caterpillar with its skin, on 8th June. It was night time (I looked for it by UV), hence the dark background:



Guy

MrSp0ck wrote: ↑Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:54 pmLots of Brown Hairstreaks in our area this Autumn, had a sighting on todays workday...

Surely not a sighting of an adult, Mr Sp0ck?

Yes an Adult, that day they hang on into October here these days.
although i expect them not to make it into November.

It seems to have had a great year in and around london, its spread into Kent seems to be continuing and there were records near the Dartford Crossing too.

I had no idea they made it to 22nd October, Sp0ck. I've seen them in the first week of October in SW Wales (where they emerge later) so they must be drinking some elixir to hang on till near November round your way.

I agree, they seem to have done excellently this year. Numbers have been up almost everywhere.

It was a fantastic season for Brown Hairstreak in the Surrey / SW London area. We found adults at just about every site we looked, including some where we hadn't seen them before. Numbers seen were notably high at several sites. The following is a slightly random selection from a load of photos taken.

First of the season - spotted this male flying in amongst a congregation of Purple Hairstreaks in a semi-mature oak tree.
Female sitting on a low blackthorn sucker at a small local reserve
And this female was one of several all frequenting the same stretch of blackthorn hedge in a field at a nearby country park

My overall favourite was probably this one, as it shows something a little different:

David M wrote: ↑Fri Nov 03, 2023 9:08 pm ...something a little different...

Different in a few ways, David! One of each sex in close proximity, both with wings wide open - and nectaring on a buddleia. Extraordinary.

Cheers,

Dave

I'm a bit late to the party on this subject, but I only took the photos a few days ago.
This is one of the 8 Brown Hairstreak eggs that I have found in my Crawley garden this year. It was laid on approximately 1st September and now looks like the textured top has been worn away.
I am investigating the cause of this damage, but it seems that the integrity of the main shell has not been compromised.

Vince

That's interesting, Vince. I've quite often found eggs with slightly crumbled/ incomplete tops, at a time when they've obviously been recently laid. When observing Brown Hairstreak egg laying, I've sometimes noticed that when the egg is laid it looks to be covered in some kind of moist gloop, but this must harden very quickly into the delicate structure that we see on finding eggs. So I've guessed that, where you find an egg with a slightly dodgy top, the female may have just "smudged" it a bit in the process of finalising the deposition. But yours presumably had all the outer honeycomb structure intact when laid, so that explanation wouldn't wash for your example. Sometimes older eggs look a bit grey or covered with algae or similar, but the honeycomb structure isn't so obviously affected.

I think what I will do is open a fresh topic, where I can lay out all of my findings on this subject, which can then be discussed more fully. It will take me a day or so to get the images sorted out.

Vince

Definitely one of the butterflies of the season. I ended up with several hundred pictures to sift through but chose this one amongst my selection from Southwick Hills on account of I wasn't even looking for them that day!