SHIPTON BELLINGER

With brown hairstreaks still on my list to find for this year, I headed to a the village of Shipton Bellinger where they are known to  be found. It was warm with mostly sunny skies and getting progressively hotter as the day went on!

I followed the Hampshire butterfly guide but disappointingly could not locate any of the brown hairstreaks in the areas described.  There were a couple of ash trees that looked promising but although I thought I saw some purple hairstreaks, flitting around the canopy, I did not see  any brown hairstreaks.

There were numerous other butterflies; speckled wood, holly blue, meadow brown, gatekeeper and whites, and surprisingly a couple of wall browns, one of which was in pristine condition, the other so tatty I was surprised it could even fly!

I might have to take a trip to Otmoor to see if I can locate any brown hairstreaks there, although with a holiday in between, I'm unsure whether they will still be around in a couple of weeks.

holly blue

speckled wood

wall brown

Post script: It seems as if I was looking in the wrong place yesterday so have made a note to look in a different area next time I visit Shipton Bellinger for brown hairstreaks.