I had a few pieces of luck this weekend that resulted in a fantastic wildlife experience at Chambers Farm Woods in Lincolnshire. The first piece of luck was whilst wondering where to go this weekend I was browsing the web and saw a note on the Butterfly Conservation website that black hairstreaks had been seen at Chambers Farm Wood.
The second piece of luck (bearing in mind I had never been there before, the place is massive and the black hairstreaks are confined to one very small place) was that I bumped in to a chap who was actually looking at them as I walked up to him.
What was quite difficult was to see them settled as they spent most of their time flitting high up in the canopy and settling out of sight, but during the time I was there on or two individuals spent no more than 5 minutes at a level where they could be photographed.
Eventually one did pose long enough for me to get some reasonable shots that I was happy with.
There was plenty of other insects around including a brimstone, white admiral, broad bordered hawk moth, a couple of dragonflies and two types of longhorn beetle.
There were also plenty of biting insects around but nothing could spoil the experience of a close encounter with some quite beautiful and very rare butterflies.
Typical view
Typical settled pose
Quite a few in flight at once
Slightly closer
Fleeting view at low level
Shame about the grass
Closer
Eventually one came down
Broad bordered hawk moth
Broad bordered hawk moth
Broad bordered hawk moth
Brimstone
Large skipper
