Hairstreaks

An exceptional butterfly day, as I found White-letter Hairstreak (main image) and Purple Hairstreak (extra) within a couple of metres of each other. I count myself lucky if I get to see either of these species during the year. I know that both live on my patch, but both are elusive.

White-letter are Elm specialists, but can be seen, if you're fortunate, when they come down to nectar on, e.g. like this one, bramble. Once seen, they do tend to hang around one spot though, so you should be able to get a good long look at them.

Purple are Oak specialists, but spend most of their time in the canopy. Once you have your eye in, you can scan Oak trees and pick up their movement, but binoculars are recommended. Like White-letter, they do sometimes come down to nectar. I was lucky that this group was on a South facing woodland edge, and they were coming quite low down, enough for a semi-decent picture at least.

Also, I saw my first Gatekeeper Butterflies of the year, so three new species for the year in one day. I'm just waiting on Common Blue and Painted Lady on my patch now but I night be able to extend my list on some of my trips out over the summer.