Lisa and I have recently returned from a trip to Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire. It was my first visit to this iconic site, but as well as enjoying the fabulous birdlife there we also took advantage of being away from our local area by seeing other wildlife we rarely get in Sussex.
As we left home early on a Friday morning, I realised that we were going to miss the flight season of the lovely Black Hairstreak. When I was a young lad getting interested in butterflies this species was the holy grail of butterflies as it was regarded as one of the rarest butterflies in Britain and only found in a few sites between Oxford and Cambridge. Back then, I thought I would never see this species. However, since then I have seen them a few times in their natural woodlands. There has also been a mystery introduction at a local site, where I have seen them several times. However, I still much prefer to see them where they are meant to be and not in an introduced site. There is one such site in Northants which is well known as a really good woodland for them, so after driving a few miles I suddenly had a brainwave idea that we could perhaps visit the site on the way to Yorkshire. I mentioned to Lisa that we could possibly go there on the way up if it wasn't too far out of the way. I was then surprised that she was keen, and after checking on her mobile phone and seeing it would only add 30-40 minutes a plan was devised.
The village of Glapthorn was eventually reached and the woodland we were after just north of the village. The site is managed by the Northants Wildlife Trust and was just a few minutes further on. We were pleased to see only a couple of other cars were parked up, and after having a quick lunch, we saw a group of 3 people returning from the wood. Strangely, Lisa had met one of the guys somewhere in Sussex. I also recognised another chap from pictures taken from Kent. Anyway, they gave us the good news that there were several Black Hairstreak showing well. As it was a site I had never been to before, they also told us the best area to concentrate on.
As we entered the woodland the weather was quite overcast, but at least it was not cold. We soon found the ride we needed and was almost immediately rewarded with several Black Hairstreak nectaring on the Bramble flowers. Nearly all my previous photos of Black Hairstreak have been of them resting on Bracken, so it was really nice getting them feeding. In a short area of the ride we were in we often had at least 5 butterflies flying together, and by walking along the short ride we saw at least 30 Black Hairstreak. An absolutely amazing start to our trip!!
Most of the butterflies were in immaculate condition, as the flight season had only just begun. What we didn't realise was that we would have another Black Hairstreak session later in the trip!!