Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Steyning Downland

Our main reason for going to Steyning Downland was to try and see brown hairstreaks. The site was mentioned as one of the best for this species, and late August was the optimal time. But brown hairstreaks are one of those 'tree top' species, so success was far from guaranteed.

Brown hairstreaks come down from the tree tops to lay their eggs on blackthorn. We scoured every blackthorn bush we could see in the hope of seeing one or more ovipositing females, but no luck ...

The eight species we did see are shown in the table (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

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