Brown Hairstreak

Plans for butterfly trips on my days off so far this month have been thwarted by the weather - after the heat and sunshine of June and July the month of August has been more typical of a British summer, being cool, wet, breezy and overcast for a lot of the time. I had hoped to finally get to Fontmell Down in Dorset to look for silver-spotted skippers and also to make a trip to Netherclay Community Woodland near Taunton in Somerset where I had recently discovered brown hairstreaks are present but the weather seemed to have other plans.

Tuesday 21st August was another overcast and dull but warm and humid and still day and I decided to head off to Taunton on the train anyway to visit Netherclay to have a look around. On the walk to Plymouth railway station to catch the train I heard and then saw at least 10 ring necked parakeets in the pine trees near the entrance including 2 blue morphs, a colour morph that is not found in the wild and therefore proving that the birds are either escapees from captivity or deliberate releases.

Blue Morph Ring-Necked Parakeet

The train journey went smoothly although it was a stinky Crosscountry train and packed as trains always are in August and after a short walk into Taunton town centre, a short bus ride to the Silk Mills Park and Ride terminal followed by another short walk to the reserve I eventually entered the woodland at around 9:30am.

The woodland is mostly newly planted with a mix of maturing trees of ash, oak and silver birch amongst others along with some mature trees and old hedgerows nestled in the middle of agricultural fields and criss-crossed by numerous paths. The Somerset Wildlife Trust website had details of the site and mentioned a mature ash tree being present along the northern hedgerow and this is where I headed first to have a look around. I easily found the tree but there was no sight of any insect activity and so I continued my wander around the wood.

Blackcap, chiffchaff, a treecreeper (my first of the year), coal-,blue-,great- and long-tailed tits, robin and blackbird were all seen with green- and great spotted woodpecker heard while swallows and house martins hawked overhead chittering away.

Eventually a few insects appeared with a green veined white, speckled wood, small white and common blue all seen with a few dragonflies buzzing along the woodland rides and various bee species enjoying the flowers of Himalayan balsam.

 Speckled Wood

 Hops

Flowering Willow

I eventually found a mature ash tree on the western edge of the woodland and while scanning the tree top a small butterfly dashed past over the brambles looking very orange with a bit of brown - a brown hairstreak, not the view I wanted but a result none the less. Another brief sighting was had of one flitting about in the tree top followed by another brief flypast view over the brambles and then finally a female flew down from the ash tree to the top of a small tree by the path where I finally managed some good binocular views and a few record shots.

 Brown Hairstreak

 Brown Hairstreak

Brown Hairstreak

Brown Hairstreak

Brown Hairstreak

It stayed there for around 20 minutes but with the clouds beginning to break up and the sun beginning to appear for brief periods the butterfly decided to fly back up the top of the ash tree where I lost sight of it. I scanned around the tree for a while and did eventually manage to see 2 brown hairstreaks flitting about together before they too disappeared from view and with the sunshine becoming stronger I decided to head back to the ash tree on the northern edge for another look.

As I walked along the footpaths to the ash tree I noted more speckled woods and small whites along with a few meadow browns and then a striking butterfly sunning itself on a sloe bush right by the footpath caught my eye - a female brown hairstreak. It allowed very close views as it sunned itself and investigated the sloe bushes with its abdomen looking for sites to lay eggs but it was restless and fidgety and I fluffed a lot of my photos although I managed a few decent ones.

 Brown Hairstreak

 Brown Hairstreak

 Brown Hairstreak

Brown Hairstreak

 Brown Hairstreak

 Brown Hairstreak

I watched it for around 10 minutes before it got involved in a tussle with a passing speckled wood and flew off over to the other side of the hedge never to return and despite wandering around the hedgerows for a while longer before beginning the journey back to Plymouth I never saw any more. I was however very pleased to have had such good views of a new butterfly for me and one I wasn't really expecting to see considering the less than ideal weather.

Friday 24th August and another cool and overcast day meant a trip to Fontmell Down was shelved yet again and instead we drove out to Bolberry Down for a walk to South Huish Marsh and back. It was quite breezy again as we walked over Bolberry Down but a few butterflies were seen - a small copper, a red admiral, small white, speckled wood and meadow brown - along with 2 kestrels and a skylark. South Huish Marsh was quiet too with a black headed gull, a grey heron, a little egret, pied wagtails with 1 white wagtail, a sand martin, swallows, a house martin and 4 ringed plover being seen. The highlight though were 2 yellow wagtails feeding in amongst some sheep in a field by the marsh, distant views and difficult to observe at times in the long grass but good to see.