Did anything ever come out of the egg-survey methodology meeting earlier in the year?
Very late tatty sighting
I spent five successive but unsuccessful days at Bookham Commons mid-August looking for brown hairstreaks. (OK, I did see male and female through binos up a sycamore).
I then went to the French Alps for three weeks.
On my return, I had given up the possibility of seeing one. Then, on 7 Oct at 2.45pm, a dull day, while looking for speckled woods (or anything), I was surprised when something brown fluttered by. Brown hairstreak didn't even enter my thoughts. Small copper or moth maybe?
Well, here she is. Only one-and-a-bit antennae, pretty tatty and it was pretty sluggish, to the extent that I could touch it. It stayed around half an hour. A great late treat!
I then went to the French Alps for three weeks.
On my return, I had given up the possibility of seeing one. Then, on 7 Oct at 2.45pm, a dull day, while looking for speckled woods (or anything), I was surprised when something brown fluttered by. Brown hairstreak didn't even enter my thoughts. Small copper or moth maybe?
Well, here she is. Only one-and-a-bit antennae, pretty tatty and it was pretty sluggish, to the extent that I could touch it. It stayed around half an hour. A great late treat!
Shop early for Xmas
It couldn't possibly be a WMBC calendar without a photo of a Brown Hairstreak and amongst the winning photos included is a shot by Simon Primrose taken at Grafton Wood. All proceeds from the calendar supports the work of Butterfly Conservation in the region.
