Thursday, 2 June 2011

Possible White-letter hairstreak Butterfly?

Over the last few days, Ive been watching several small dark Butterflies in action in my back garden. The only problem being, is that they are high in the tree tops, so its been very very difficult to get any type of clear photos of them. The most Ive seen is 4 at once, and they like to bask in the sun, and most of the time they are tight against a leaf. Frustrated by very poor long distance shots, i decided to climb onto the roof of my summer house this morning to see if i could manage some better shots for a positive ID. I still had to use all of the 18X optical zoom lens on my camera, and the photos are heavily cropped too, but Im pretty sure these are White-letter Hairstreaks? If they are not, then Im happy to be corrected.
Im hoping that the "Butterfly Man" Greenie can confirm their ID :-)

Some photos then, as usual click on an image to enlarge, cheers.

There are 2 in this shot, which i was lucky to capture for sure!!



For the most part, the sun/light source was back/side lite, which was not ideal for a positive ID, but on this last shot, the light direction was better.

I visited my Church patch(late afternoon)on the 31st of May, and am pretty sure that this is a Spotted Flycatcher too. It landed under a tree briefly,so the light was poor, then it flew out of sight, so i only had the one chance to take a quick pic.

Also at the Church, these large Roman Snails have returned.

Also on the 31st of May, two good finds in my garden once more, firstly the Lesser Stag Beetle.


And later on that day, my son found a male Stag Beetle on his trampoline!

5 comments:

  1. Paul ,
    Your butterflies certainly are White -letter Hairstreaks , well done . You must have Elm or Wych Elm in or close to your garden , on which they depend . Dutch Elm disease demolished the habitat for this species , and are now scarce .
    Four is a good number , but are probable males , with females to follow . Although they are seen mostly at tops of trees , they do come down to take nectar , the books say Bramble and Thistle , but I have found them on many others , Hemp Agrimony , Marjoram , Ox-eye Daisy and Ragwort amongst others .
    Like most species this year , very early .
    Would also agree your Sp.Fly ID .
    Great pictures of the 'Stags' .
    ps. It would be well worth letting Kent Butterfly Conservation know about the WLHs.

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  2. As Greenie says Paul, those WLHS are a great find, and in your own garden! Nice find mate :-)

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  3. Hi Paul

    What an excellent find. Definitely get in touch with Butterfly Conservation as they pretty scarce around these parts (Only see them distantly down near Hamstreet). If you have a garden opening let me know!!!

    Adam

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  4. Hi Paul.
    I agree with Greenie. Your Spotted Flycatcher ID seems correct to me.
    well done with the butterfly find, and photo's.

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  5. Great to find White Letter Hairstreak in your garden, fantastic! Found your blog via Warrens. Sometimes it seems to take me so long to write mine (not very well I might add!) I don't get chance look around and find others. Nice one :-)

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