white-letter hairstreak

 

30th July

The white-letter hairstreak is the least exciting of the 5 UK hairstreaks. I have to qualify that saying that is only my opinion and other hairstreak opinions are available. The purple hairstreak is frustrating as hell but when freshly out the packet at least can look spectacular if caught in a fetching light. The white-letter hairstreak isn't disgraceful but the most noticeable thing about it is its absence from most of Scotland. Until 2017 when Iain C saw a "very ragged and worn individual found feeding on ragwort in the grassy edge of an arable field" just this side of the Scottish border. It may not sound like headlines but did make the Smithsonian Magazine and the Guardian (where they spelled his name correctly and without the R that the Smithsonian used.) And celebrated the long awaited return - 133 years! - of this medium sized browny/grey job. It does have a little tail which gives it some distinction and some attractive orange spots.

I dutifully hurried down to the borders and photographed this new butterfly in August 2019 (blog here) and was directed towards one or 2 to photograph near Springwood, Kelso. It was a great day out and I nearly went down there this year to repeat the process. 

Ballingers!

Instead I didn't, but went up the road a mile or 2 to Holyrood Park where one of these long absent butterflies had been spotted by Richard W. In something of a coup he saw and photographed one in Holyrood Pk where the boundary wall goes behind Dunsapie. Totally top marks Richard for ID-ing this distant stranger and saving me a trip with bike on train to Tweedbank.

It was a couple of days since Richard spotted the WLH - it had taken a while for the sun to return - and in that time a small crowd had gathered. The announcement had been flagged up on a facebook group and I think also twitter had mentioned it as there were faces I didn't know, as well as faces I did. (I have zero interest in any more social media than the absolute minimum which for my generation is facebook. Tiktok and twitterX are poisonous conspiracy idiots incorporated as far as I can see and have no intention of confirming as much.)

The number of people excited about a "new" butterfly in Holyrood and able to take the time to visit seemed to be between 1 and 15. Enough to trample down the surrounding grass a little, but not enough to sell tickets to this festival show. It was a spot that Mary and I visited late Summer a few times as the buddleia and brambles there attracts commas, red admirals and peacocks at this time.

It was fun to see people as they arrived, (maybe 6 or 7 at peak traffic) marked out by binoculars and long lens cameras. Myself included of course, although I've never carried binoculars. Normally I do such stuff solo or with Mary and I'm not sure if it is preferable to find and mingle with your clan. Cult might be a more appropriate term. 

initial sighting - Loch Ness quality

Anyway I saw the Ballingers first, who had been watching the spot (without success) until bored and were off to count elms on the other side of the wall. Elms being the prefered home of the WLHs. They huddle up the top of elms and only descend occasionally. Which is why they could have been with us for some time before Richard discovered them.

Almost immediately at the site, I saw something that might be the right thing. I took some bad pics like you might take on sighting the Loch Ness Monster in order to preserve its privacy and just give a tantalising glimpse of it without taking anything like a decent photo. It saw me and promptly headed back up to the top of a tree to sit on a leaf I'd never get near. I think it was about 45 minutes before it returned during which time other cult members had arrived. Also a comma had turned up, judged my company unwanted and swooped off elsewhere after a brief encounter.  

comma, a brief pause and then away again
(if you'll forgive the tautology 😎)

45mins later - another quick visit from a WLH
this is what all the fuss is about!

then it was off!
another hour passes slowly.....

my cult!

Every time I realised I was wasting my life standing shoulder deep in grass and brambles I would make to leave. But then bump into another cult member arriving or get caught up in another conversation. There were a couple of nice folk turned up and I enjoyed meeting them so it wasn't a bad morning, but it wasn't quite living the dream either. Eventually I escaped and went round the other side of the wall to see if the Ballingers were surrounded by scads of lepidoptera as they knelt below an elm tree. They weren't - I caught a distant glimpse of them heading East surrounded by no butterflies.

ooooh, that's MUCH better!

Round the other side of the wall I clambered over grass and bramble. I came across another comma, a splendid one, vivid orange and lovely green dots on the underwing, and two things occurred to me. 1/ Commas are far better butterflies than WLHs and 2/ I'm glad it's the WLHs and not the commas that hide at the tops of trees. That said, commas are thought to mate up the tops of trees as they are rarely seen or photographed doing the deed. 

yeah one of those again

also one of those

from left to right
Mervyn (Melvin?) Phil B (discoverer of the Holyrood green hairstreak in 2020) Alan B (dragonfly connoisseur) and Mervyn's wife whose name escapes me. 

if you are looking for the WLH spot it is beside a large buddleia
poking over the wall from the other side

Eventually Mary turned up. Which meant we could leave and go look for other butterflies. Which we did. Sadly not many about at Samson's Ribs apart from a stray grayling. This one had a damaged wing and was unable to fly off the pavement. We helped it over the fence and into the foliage where it was maybe less in danger from passing traffic. The skipper was on the way home. I have popped by the WLH site once or twice since but could not put in the hours required to see it again. Nice to know they are there and very nice to add another species to the Holyrood Park list which must be around mid-twenties by now. I can't think of any other square mile in Scotland that yields such a high species count. Thanks to Richard for spotting the WLH. I wonder how long it would have taken before the rest of us realised they were there?

small skipper