A couple of Hairstreaks

Purple Hairstreak

Purple Hairstreak

White Letter Hairstreak

White Letter Hairstreak

White Letter Hairstreak

White-letter day

It has been a poor year for White-letter Hairstreaks at Bedford Purlieus, I think only a handful have been reported and up until today I had not seen one, despite my numerous visits. That was to change with the sighting of two rather tatty individuals, with one of these quite literally falling out of an oak tree and landing on some wild thyme right in front of me.

The poor creatures look decidedly worse for wear and I don't think they will last much longer, in fact, after the thunder storm that was experienced this evening I fear that they are no longer with us.

The three photos above show the individual that fell out of the oak tree

This is obviously a different butterfly as seen by the hindwing being in a slightly better state.

A small butterfly with a wingspan of 35mm and a fairly short flight period, with individuals normally appearing from July until mid-August. It normally feeds high in the tree canopy on honey dew, although it sometimes feeds on flowers and thistles. It is the darkest and 'plainest' of the Hairstreaks, although the uppersides of the wings are never seen as it always feeds and rests with its wings closed. This butterfly is identified by the conspicuous white 'W' on the hindwing underside.

Bedford Purlieus butterflies

White-letter Hairstreak (Satyrium w-album)

White Admiral (Limenitis camilla)

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)

Large Skipper (Ochlodes venata)

Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia)

Purple Hairstreak (Neozephyrus quercus)

Last weekend the weather was perfect for butterflies and so Lisa and I spent Saturday searching the woods at Bedford Purlieus and the chalk fields of Barnack Hills and Holes. Above are photographs of some of the species seen at Bedford Purlieus, I will put the ones of Hills and Holes on another as there are quite a few!

The stars of the show at the woods were the Silver-washed Fritillaries, we counted at least 35 individuals, with at least 10 Purple Hairstreaks, 3 White-letter Hairstreaks, 2 White Admirals, plus numerous Meadow Browns, Large and Small Whites, Green-veined Whites, Large Skippers, Speckled Woods, a few Red Admirals and Commas and the most numerous species was the Ringlet.

The sun was shining and the Silver-washed Fritillaries were very busy flying up and down the rides, very briefly stopping on a bramble or wild Thyme, but never long enough to get a decent photo (I managed one, but at distance). Also, the Purple Hairstreaks were very high up in the canopy of 200 feet oak trees, the only photo was taken by Digiscoping and the result is not very pleasing, but the butterfly is identifiable.

All photographs, except the Purple Hairstreak were taken with my hand-held Canon Powershot A640.

More butterflies

Having been the sort of person that was quite happy to look at a butterfly and say "what a pretty thing!", I have been slowly drawn in to actually start trying to identify the species and search for butterflies that I didn`t even know existed!

Here are some more photo`s that were taken at Bedford Purlieus on Sunday 18th July.


Common Blue

Silver-washed Fritillary

White-letter Hairstreak



Ringlet

Comma

Bedford Purlieus

I have finally succumbed to checking out Bedford Purlieus to see the amazing array of butterflies on show there.
I don`t have a DSLR, so all the photo`s were taken with my little pocket camera. I don`t think Peter or Mike have anything to worry about on the competition front!

White-letter Hairstreak

White-letter Hairstreak


White-letter Hairstreak

White-letter Hairstreak

White Admiral (a rather tatty individual, but the only one seen)


Small White

Red Admiral


Silver-washed Fritillary


Silver-washed Fritillary

Large Skipper


Gatekeeper

Common Blue


Common Blue


Comma

As well as these there were also lots of Ringlets and Meadow Browns.