www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I'm reading the posts and looking at the great pics of various Brown Hairstreak. Then i look and see they are still flying, so now i'm thinking perhaps i got see one this year.
Same with Clouded Yellow.....i'd love to see one.
Only issue is i feel i'm going to need a steer from somebody as to a good site to try and where to look fot these targets. Anybody got any advise that might push me in the right direction..I'm on the essex / London border so need to consider travel from there too.
Any assistance appreciated.

Could be the just week to go looking for Brown Hairstreaks - the forecast for the week is excellent with temperatures in the mid 20s in the south east.

Living down here I don't know how successful my advice will be but you never know...

Bookham Commons seems to be a good site for Brown Hairstreak - check out the "August 2011" thread and you might be able to pick up some tips there, or PM some of the members that have been there for more details?

As for Clouded Yellow I read on another site that perhaps this wasn't a very good year for them as they've been reported but in ones and twos, but this maybe bodes well for a year or twos time when we might get a "Clouded Yellow year". So it will probably come down to luck and being in the right place at the right time this year. Saying that Newland in his book "Discover Butterflies" does mention Gunpowder Park in Essex as a hotspot (OS map 166, TQ 385944), so you could head there to try your luck!

Have a goodun, hope this has been some help!

Wurzel

Hi Brian,

As Wurzel says, it hasn't been a good year for Clouded Yellows. If you're really keen, I would check out the Sussex or Hants sightings pages and head for a good site with say Adonis Blue and hope you stumble across a Clouded Yellow. We haven't had any in Essex this year and I regularly check the lucerne fields on the Dengie coast. Maybe they'll turn up at Rainham Marshes in late September/October again. A walk either side of the sea wall can be productive if they are about, and there might be a Wall Brown there at that time.

RobS

Appreciate the advise guys, i've two weeks off starting Friday so i'll see if I can get out and do some searching
thanks again

If you need advice re Brown Hairstreaks on Bookham Common you should PM Philzoid. He's been skoring nicely there for a while now. My pal had one in his suburban garden today within quarter of a mile of Epsom town centre, so they're definitely consolidating their range in central Surrey.

Gibster.

thanks, i'll give it a go...need to work out how to PM but i reckon I can crack it

Given my limited experience of B. Hairstreaks I wonder if any of you had simalar experience of the behaviour I 've seen:
Half of my 6 sightings were 'accidental' in that I wasn't looking for them but they were right under my nose, in my line of sight. Looking for them specifically hasn't improved my luck, but reading somewhere (probably here) that in flight they resemble a gatekeeper, last year when I saw a 'Gatekeeper' in flight I followed - within a couple of seconds it settled but I couldn't spot it, so I waited. After about 20 seconds it flew up and continued in the same direction for another 10 feet or so before settling. That time I kept my eye on it and saw it was a female Brown Hairstreak. It sat still, basking for about a minute before it flew off again in the same direction and for about the same distance, up into a tree where I lost sight of it again.

Given the time I've spent looking (unsucessfully!) versus actual sightings I wonder if what I saw that time: sitting still when settled, not hovering over their landing spot and opening and closing their wings hardly at all, and not spending much time in flight is what makes them so hard to see, and if it is a pattern that anyone else sees and could be responsible for their ellusiveness?

The attached image is one of the accidental sightings - I was just about to push past the Golden Rod, and only was looking down and being careful because of all the bees and insects on it. It stayed long enough to call my sister to get a camera, but not long enough to get a photo!fr

Whilst waiting for BHs to descend in S. Wales, I often stood up and investigated activity, only to find either a Small Copper or a male Hedge Brown.

One of the things that I always think marks out Hairstreaks though is the way they land. They just plonk themselves on their chosen spot like a falling leaf. There's no fluttering about for several seconds - they seem to prefer to walk once they've alighted if they need to.

Exactly the same experience for me, Hilary. I was walking along the Roman Road at Otmoor last Autumn surrounded by clouds of Gatekeepers. Then I looked more closely at one on a Knapweed flower head and it was a Brown Hairstreak! It was the only one I saw that afternoon and, at least, mine did stay for photos.

Mike