The patchy woodlands just outside the corner of south west London, with varying diversity of flora mixed in with the classic old English oaks scattered in these woodland glades, provides excellent habitat for a few nice butterflies I targeted over last summer. One of the woodlands I visited regularly is fairly open with old oaks and plenty of birches, surrounded by patches of occasionally cattle grazed pasture with brambles common along every trail and clearing and nearby the other woodland has several new and old conifer plantations, much more diversity of broadleaf trees too. At both sites, during the height of summer from mid June through to August, Fritillary’s, Hairstreaks and White Admirals emerge in good numbers.

Starting with my most favourite encounter, a Brown Hairstreak. The last part of this warm evening was spent photographing a Silver-washed Fritillary until I noticed a small ‘orange’ butterfly on the track, shimmering in light breeze and evening light, showing off why their name isn’t really as fitting! The hairstreak was quite restful and along with shots on the ground, a nearby herb stem proved a nice perch. Hairstreaks in general can be quite difficult to track down, let alone photograph well, as all species tend to keep to scrub higher up in thick vegetation, only occasionally coming low down, so even more surprising having this one on the ground. With it exhibiting quite a low energy state right at the end of the day, it enabled me to move around to try all kinds of angles when shooting. Backlight, front-light and a mix of shrubs in the background that run along the track.

Present here in high numbers is the Purple Hairstreak, seen in large groups at dusk flying around the tops of old trees where the colony is and sometimes seen lower down during the morning, however during the season I mostly photographed them in lone trees in the scrubland area of the site, so more on this species will be saved for another blogpost. Green Hairstreaks should also be present, but I’ve never managed to see them here and along with their elusiveness they're also relatively uncommon. It will take hopefully locating where a small population seem to stick to in the upcoming spring.

Silver-washed Fritillaries emerged in number once into June and were frequent in between sunny spells throughout the day. They would be seen moving quickly through woodland glades and often rest/feed for prolonged periods of time when the sky became overcast or when in shaded spots. The best way to locate them was finding buddleia. In this location the purple bush would grow to large sizes throughout the woodland as there were limited restrictions. In one spot there were several around a single plant. A nice and shaded buddleia was great to shoot a fritillary backlit against the conifer trees as it fed on nectar.

A row of Teasel along the dirt track attracted a fritillary on one of the evenings, in fact it was photographed just moments before spotting the Brown Hairstreak. The teasel wasn’t too dense but the contrasting light and stems across the scene provided a nice composition and the plant itself is fairly interesting to have as part of the subject.

It is necessary to keep your eyes following the verges along the tracks and dirt roads, where a wide range of herbs and plants specifically popular with many small species grow in number. Purple Emperor may even drop down to these, although didn’t manage to find one last summer. Holly Blue, the commonest of the blues family was a nice subject in one of these sections of herbs just at the entrance to the woodland. Normally it’s very hard getting them to sit still for long and they’re usually seen just floating around, constantly looking for a new spot and rarely settling for more than a few moments at a time.

Large Skippers liked these verges too and in the glades especially surrounded by bracken. They would take flight easily but when approached slowly they were photographable when focused on nectar feeding from their chosen plant.

As the bright mornings progress, more and more butterflies emerge in the woodland. Peak activity from around 9-11am. Gatekeepers were incredibly numerous along the trails lined with brambles, it wasn’t unusual to record between 30-80 in a mornings walk. But during this time of day and in the same habitat, was the best chance of getting great views of White Admirals as they would descend and feed on the blackberry bushes and fairly unlikely to spook when at this state. This provided the best views, compared to the usual sightings of them gliding strongly through the woodland glades, only stopping at a height in old trees. Even had three together in one spot on the brambles!

The odd Painted Lady would make an appearance too, one landed on the parched ground whilst I was tracking some hairstreaks.

The following two parts to this series will showcase the species photographed in meadows and flat open fields and butterflies in scrubland. Both different scenes to this blogpost’s featured environment and will in turn have a different cast of species too, although sometimes there is an overlap, especially where both habitats and their flora merge together along the borders.