Last year, we tried to find brown hairstreaks at Steyning Downland, but unfortunately, we didn't see any. We decided to try our luck this year at Shipton Bellinger, which was mentioned as giving the best chance to see them in Hampshire.
Upon arrival, we slowly walked past the hedgerows, which had many holly blues flitting about ...
... but no brown hairstreaks. Quite possibly because the weather was rather cool, and the sky overcast.
At some point we got talking to another butterfly enthusiast, also looking for brown hairstreaks. We walked the hedgerows together for a while, and then went our separate ways again.
Until we saw him across an open field, waving his arms at us. Turned out he had spotted a brown hairstreak in a field full of nettles and thistles, and was kind enough to alert us. And the butterfly was still there, nectaring from the thistles, and coming back to them again and again!
We only ever saw that one brown hairstreak, so massive thank-you to that (anonymous) butterfly enthusiast for alerting us to a new species! Here's the table for the day (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):
No comments:
Post a Comment