www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Week 7.

Here is the opportunity to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2013 (or the last time you saw one!).

This is part of a series of topics which will grow over 20 weeks throughout the winter, eventually covering all 59 species which are regularly found in the British Isles. The intention is to showcase three species per week (in alphabetical order), so please wait until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos. Our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants.

Details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, stories of personal encounters, anecdotes or other interesting points.

Vince

Green Hairstreak

After a dismal couple of Greenstreak years this had been a cracker! The first year I started butterflying Green Hairstreaks were on the top of my list from the word go and they were an easy find. A little trip to Martin Down and there they were. The following year I found one quite by chance and that was it. Then last year with my new lens I really went for it and they became my nemesis. No matter what time of day or where I went I just couldn’t connect with them. After three new sites where I had heard that they were, checking every likely looking Hawthorn on all of my routes to work and making 7 or 8 visits to Martin Down I found one!
This year however it was a different story and I was practically falling over them. This is my favourite Greenstreak sot of the year partly because it was the one that kick started off my run of fortune but also because of its posture. I like the way that it looks all snooty and comical at the same time almost as if I’m playing a game of Hide and Seek with a Royal Teddy Bear. Have a goodun

Wurzel

Here is a Green Hairstreak from near Marseilles. This was my first Lycaenid to appear in 2013. Down here they flew from the last week of March to the last week of May and were quite numerous this year. Has anyone ever managed to get an open wing shot of a GH? - that's on my wish list for 2014.
Chris

In 2012 Green Hairstreaks had a poor year on Cradle Valley, unfortunately 2013 was not an awful lot better here. This one was my first of the year on the 9th May.

http://bobsbutterflies.blogspot.com

Green Hairstreaks were out in good numbers at Ryton Wood Meadows when I went there back in May.
I saw plenty of males flitting about and skirmishing with each other, usually high up around the hawthorn bushes around the edge of the meadows and occasionally one would come down low enough and pose for a photo.
There were also a number of females, usually lower down and further into the meadows, probably looking for suitable plants for egg laying. I believe that Birdsfoot Trefoil is usually used here.
I also like the photo below taken at Prestbury Hill in early June which brings back memories of watching this male squabbling with another one over a small Hawthorn whilst I sat and ate my lunch.
Cheers,

Neil.

I struggle to get decent quality images of this species due to its reflective scales. This specimen, taken at Welshmoor on the Gower in mid-May is a particularly lovely example, with a full band of rear-wing 'hairstreaks'. If only the quality of the image matched that of the butterfly itself:

My favourite Photo and my first of a GH S is this one, I took the Photo at Gaits Barrow on the 7th May, I'd gone looking for Dukes when a Lady told us where to find the GHS I couldn't get there quick enough She said they'd been at the same place for the last couple of years, my hope now is they'll be back there this next year Goldie

Lovely specimen, Goldie.

Yours has got the UPPER-wing hairstreaks too!

Thanks David, glad you like it , I count myself lucky to have found it for a first time hoping my new camera lens will do as well next year. Goldie

These are lovely butterflies - and it is almost impossible to capture the variety of colour in the iridescence. From bronze through to deep turquoise, depending on the light, and it's almost as if there's a chamaeleon effect to match the background. My first favourite has a lot of different greens in it (from the reviving colony at Denbies - 2nd May). The second is a close encounter with one down on the ground near High & Over taking salts - not something I'd seen this particular species do before. Like other spring butterflies, they were around late this year and I was surprised to see one (again at Denbies) on 29th June. This last one was a shadow of its former glorious green, however, and not really worth posting.

Dave

I post this pristine, male green hairstreak with much sadness. The entire site (in Italy) was bulldozed in July. I think females do wander in search of places to lay, so with luck his genes might still be passed on.



Guy

That's a lovely shot, Guy, and evidence that a simple point-and-shoot can deliver an excellent result.

I hope that you find survivors in the area, next year.

Mike

Yes, it's pretty special isn't it?

Green Hairstreaks continue to be my nemesis from a photography perspective yet Guy makes this subject seem positively straightforward.

My favourite comes from a batch of images taken of my first sighting of this species in 2013. It came on 1st May at the very end of my transect at Quarry Hangers Reserve. Two were on the ground or on low vegetation and one stayed around for over an hour. This one showed a flash of the brown upperside, which contrasted nicely with the sparkling underside.
Judging by its behaviour, which was to dart up and investigate anything that flew past, it was a male.

Vince

Small patch of bluebells in the west of the Isle of Wight never fails to provide green Hairstreaks. At least seven in one of the photos. At one point I counted 10 on the flowers or in the air! Ian

Hi Ian,
Wow, I've never seen multiple GHSs like that down my way. Good photo.
CJ

That's quite something, Ian! I've never seen green hairstreaks feeding happily together like that either.

Thanks for the kind comments on my picture, David and Mike.

Guy

Ian Pratt wrote:Small patch of bluebells in the west of the Isle of Wight never fails to provide green Hairstreaks. At least seven in one of the photos.

That image is a real cracker, Ian.

Just shows that butterflies can occasionally surprise even the most informed observers.

padfield wrote:I post this pristine, male green hairstreak with much sadness. The entire site (in Italy) was bulldozed in July. I think females do wander in search of places to lay, so with luck his genes might still be passed on.



Guy

Hello Guy,
Which model of camera did you use for your photo above please ?
Thanks,
Chris.

cjackson wrote:Which model of camera did you use for your photo above please ?

Hi Chris. I use a Canon Powershot SX 130. It's essentially point-and-shoot, but I should add that I've been pointing and shooting with Canon Compacts for a long time now and there are a lot of tricks and techniques even with these cheap models. It actually took me some time to work out how to photograph green hairstreaks.

Guy