Tempted down from the treetops

In early July last year, our local butterfly recorder tipped me off that Black Hairstreaks had been seen in a classic 'butterfly field' a couple of miles from our house, a sunny patch of undisturbed meadow on the edge of dense woodland fringed by blackthorn, brambles and briars. I went and spent a happy morning encountering White Admirals among other butterfly glories and, at the very end of my ramble, found my prey on flowering brambles by a row of run-down garages. Like rare birds, elusive butterflies often find surprising places to tuck themselves away.

A more typical photo. Black Hairstreaks prefer the treetops where they lick up aphid honey, only making occasional forays down to briars and brambles from late morning

The site

A fortnight ago, the same recorder told me that the 'Black Hairstreak' season for this year had started and could I go and check out the field again for sightings, as she was busy with other demands on her life. I couldn't go immediately because Penny and I were preparing for, doing and recovering from a 20-mile walk in the current blazing sunshine for the charity World Child Cancer which the said cousin chairs. Friendly fate, however, had a treat in store. I took my cousin and her partner for a walk round the 'Big Field', right on our doorstep, and in a sunny woodland ride (second picture above), guess what we saw.

Same with added bike

I immediately interrupted our chatter with a schoolmasterly "Shush!" and "Don't move, just for a sec" as an unfamiliar butterfly, reminiscent of a Hedge Brown but smaller and definitely bigger than a Blue, flickered about on blackthorn with sudden, soaring sallies to some young ashes, way beyond my iPhone range. Then down it obligingly came and click!  We have a new Black Hairstreak site to add to the 60 or so on record, and it is almost in our garden.

There were two of them on this initial visit and the following day I called by on my bike coming home from Oxford and had ten sightings, sometimes just of one, sometimes of two, but never as close as the first encounter. The picture immediately above was the best I could do. I will keep an eye on them but I am sure, given the mount of blackthorn, briar and bramble we have around here, that there will be other local sites. Butterfly Conservation do well to describe the species as very elusive rather than very rare. There just aren't that many people who know what they are and are looking out for them.

Last year's sighting was followed by my first-ever encounter with a Brown Hairstreak and I described 2022 as an annus mirabilis as a result. I reckon that 2023 has also earned that status now, at least so far as hairstreaks are concerned.

There was also a happy coda to this adventure. I unwittingly lost one of my bike's propellors which must have got entangled in the scrub which the hairstreaks so much like. Luckily, the bike is well-known round here and some Good Samaritan found the prop and stuck it on our gatepost. So now, like a hairstreak, I can fly again.