Brown Hairstreak Butterfly

The Brown Hairstreak is a lovely butterfly that is always a pleasure to see. A visit to Berwood meadows in Oxfordshire in August 2008 produced 7 or 8 individuals this picture of a few eggs.

These pictures below were taken in August 2007. This was the first butterfly that I made a special target visit, which proved very worthwhile. At the time that I visited, this was the rarest British Butterfly that I have managed to see or take photos of.

These were taken at Whitecross Green wood, near Bicester in Oxfordshire.

These pictures are all of females. I managed to see about 4 - 5 females, mostly on Blackthorn.

The Brown Hairstreak butterfly is not common, and I was very pleased to see these females.

I guess they are probably found at less than 100 sites in Britain. At many of these sites there are not great numbers of them, indeed at many it is uncommon to see a double figure number of individuals on any one day.

It's sometimes hard to tell the exact numbers seen as sometimes you will see the same butterfly on more than one occasion.
When I photographed these, I think I saw between 4 and 6 females (all looking to lay eggs in the blackthorn.)

Whitecross Green wood is a great site for some of the more common Dragonfly species along with a few of the more common Butterfly species.
I also saw Common Blue and Meadow Brown.