One of the butterflies I failed to record last year was the white letter hairstreak. I used to regularly find one of two of these small butterflies at a woodland near home but have been unable to locate them recently. However, as I was staying with my sister I asked if she knew of a colony near to her in Cambridgeshire and she told about some she'd seen in a small clearing in Knapwell wood.
On arrival in the small carpark, I followed her down a path and into the woodland where she located the clearing, although it had become somewhat overgrown. We focused on an area of brambles just below some elms, and making our way through some shoulder high cow parsley soon spotted our first white letter hairstreak on the bramble. They were hard to photograph as they appeared as small dark triangles with the sun behind them, but eventually I succeeded in getting a few decent images.
We then made for a golf course at Therfield heath where we found some dark green fritillaries flying at great speed across the long grass before disappearing. These were new for the year, together with a single chalk hill blue which we found clinging to some grass for a few seconds. Sadly I was unable to photograph either species on this visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment