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Purple Hairstreak - Favourite Photo of 2015

Week 13

Happy 2016 to one and all. Here continues sequence of posts giving one and all the opportunity to showcase their favourite shots of 2015!

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As like last year 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.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

My first encounter with the Purple Hair streak,( which incidentally I nearly trod on ) was again in Dean Wood Kent on the 3rd of August, I wasn't sure what it was at first and again clicked a way I'd just seen the Empress and was in a great mood and not looking at the ground, until my daughter said what's that,
I managed two quick shots before the Butterfly flew off into the trees, it was a great day out, two lifers Goldie

I was pleased to get this as they're a pretty elusive species. This was on a low oak in Hatfield Forest, in windy conditions and poor light, if I remember right.



Now I know where to look I hope to return to this tree earlier in PH season this year.

I've rarely managed a close encounter with this species but this shot was taken late in the afternoon in poor light. I think the individual (male) was trying to find a little warmth from the gravel on the ride:
Mike

Fermyn Woods on 18th July saw only a handful of Purple Emperors, but the other purple resident was around in extraordinarily large numbers, including a rare sighting of a grounded female:
There were dozens in the main oak tree in the first clearing, though none would descend below about 10 feet:

The highlight of my butterfly year in 2015 was this encounter with a freshly emerged male Purple Hairstreak sitting on the path at Botany Bay on July 6th. It hardly moved in 30 minutes so I assume it was drying its wings. And then I walked off and saw a grounded Emperor only 3 minutes later
Cheers
John

I saw quite a few of these last year, mostly at Bookham Common whilst looking for a larger Purple inhabitant, but this old girl appeared whilst I was looking for her Brown relative (who appeared half an hour later) and sat for about 10 minutes allowing me a good range of pictures. This was my fav choice as it showed the most amount of purple on her faded wings

I saw quite a few Purple Hairstreaks in 2015, as usual mostly flitting about high up around the treetops. My closest encounter once again came at Bernwood Meadows when I stopped off on my way back from Aston Rowant and checked out the 'Purple Hairstreak hawthorn' at the end of the long thin meadow by the road and saw maybe 7 or 8 flitting about. I made full use of the vari-angle screen on my FZ200 to stretch up and get a few photos.
My favourite 2015 photo of this species however is a pretty rubbish long distance shot of an example seen at the park down the road from my moms house which was a first for me at this spot and confirms their presence there.
Cheers,

Neil

A rather poor show of Purple Hairstreak at my local Brighton colony this year, due to the trees altitude it was exposed to relentless high winds, they never really got going. If they did, they chose not to fly in perfect condition that were infrequently observed. The most I observed during a single day was 4 individuals.

Hard to pick, here are my favourite three -

Only long distance shots for me adjacent to the roundabout at J14 of the M25 on 3rd August. Dave