White-letter Hairstreak - Favourite Photo of 2013

[Vince Massimo]

Week 20 (final categories)

Here is the opportunity to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2013 (or the last time you saw one!).

This is the final part of a series of topics which have been growing over 20 weeks throughout the winter, aiming to cover all 59 species which are regularly found in the British Isles. Our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants.

Details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, stories of personal encounters, anecdotes or other interesting points.

Next week (Sunday 2nd March) you will all have the opportunity of posting your favourite single image of the year. This will be in the Photography section of the forums.

Vince

[Wurzel]

White Letter Hairsteak

Back in the balmy weather of early July I set out with Philzoid to a Secret Squirrels site for White Letter Hairstreaks or Whitters as I call them for short. Almost as soon as we were on site we found some flying around the canopy of some Wytch Elms. All the shots I got were of silhouettes or were pretty distant and were the ‘hope it crops okay’ variety.

Further investigation of the site yielded several more ‘master trees’ with the little square winged butterflies flying out and squabbling – but always a little too far away. We couldn’t work out if perhaps we were too early in the season for them to be coming down to nectar or whether there was still plenty of honeydew higher up on the leaves but either way they weren’t coming down to the abundant Thistle heads.

We ended up back where we had started and I thought I’d try a little trick which seems to attract butterflies – I poured a coffee. No sooner had I poured a second cup for myself than a Whitter came down low enough to be within range of our lenses. As we were enjoying this strangely marked butterfly a larger, odd looking Whitter caught my eye and it was even lower down in the canopy, at perfect height. When I approached it I realised that it was a mating pair.

I don’t think I got tired of photographing them and this it my favourite of the pairing because it captures the the stripey legs, the clear ‘W’ and the golden tinges of the wing hairs. In the end this is one of almost 300 shots that I took because you can never tell with this species when the next time they’ll be this close.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Vince Massimo]

I have only got one image of a White-letter Hairstreak from 2013, so it has to be my favourite

In July I was doing my yearly check of a small White-letter Hairstreak colony which I discovered in local woods a few years ago. While taking a record shot of a male at the top of the master tree, I got a passing aircraft in the frame.

WLH/Boeing 757 - Woldingham, Surrey 18-July-2013

I kept it for its novelty value and was also able to use it in the "Worst Photo of 2013" category, so it has served me well.

Vince

[badgerbob]

2013 was a better year for WLH around Seaford despite masses of Elms having to be felled due to Dutch Elm Disease. (this has continued throughout this winter as well). I found a couple of places where they were coming down to nectar on either bramble or creeping thistle. The first picture here of the male was in mid July and the female was early August.

male White-letter Hairstreak

female White-letter Hairstreak

http://bobsbutterflies.blogspot.com

[Padfield]

I spotted this heavily pregnant female in the middle of the road as I was cycling a particularly fun, unbroken, downhill stretch on the way home from a cranbery bog. I nearly caused a pile-up as I went to rescue her but it was worth it. She enjoyed some finger sweat instead of filthy road tar and I left her safely on an elm leaf a little way from the road.





Guy

[Goldie M]

Loved all the photo's, I've yet to see one hope fully this year i may Goldie

[David M]

I spent many patient hours tracking and observing this elusive species at the Alun Valley site during July and early August. Eventually, I encountered a female on an egg laying mission (28th July):

[nomad]

The first time I had seen this species for years. A female top and a male bottom at Hadleigh - Essex.

[PhilBJohnson]

My first ever sighting of a White Letter Hairstreak ! .
Apparently, they are not seen so frequently on Bookham Common, Surrey in recent years.
I found this individual in a woodland clearing. It had a slightly damaged lower wing.
There must have been an elm tree nearby but I couldn't find it.