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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3447279" data-attributes="member: 12449">15-17 August. Season’s Decline.One day of reasonable sun, two days of cool, wet and blustery conditions. Even on the sunny day, a marked decline in butterfly numbers - visiting Labanoras and Kernave, I notched up 21 species, top of the pick being my second Brown Argus of the year, with other nice butterflies including Little Blue and three Queen of Spain Fritillaries.These aside though, numbers of most species were well down, the key exceptions being Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshells, both of which were more abundant than in recent weeks, perhaps the start of a final flush. All in all however, especially with the onset of heavy rain, the season truly felt near its end.18-21 August. Grand Finale.Scraping the barrel, there were only a couple of final potential species remotely possible this year ...Brown Hairstreak was the most likely, a butterfly that I had not seen in Lithuania since 2009, and after that a vagrant species from south, one of the clouded yellow group being at the top of my mind, even though none are annual in Lithuania! And so I turned my attentions to these butterflies!18 August. Dukstos.Despite searching for Brown Hairstreak without success in several localities over the previous couple of weeks, I reasoned I had as good a chance in the Neris Valley as anywhere else, so decided upon the mixed forest and meadow landscapes of the Dukstos area this day. Hit and miss weather, good sunny periods and about 20 C, but so too occasional banks of clouds and spots of rain.Further reductions in butterfly numbers immediately apparent, only 13 species seen with Common Blues and Small Heaths the only species appearing in fairly good numbers. As for Brown Hairstreak, I searched high and low in areas that I thought looked encouraging, but saw zilch. Then however, as I tramped back towards my car after three hours of wandering, there was a Brown Hairstreak! Surely the most stunning of the Lithuanian hairstreaks, the vivid oranges of this fresh individual were simply splendid. Probably the last new species for the year, a wonderful finale to an excellent year.Stupid me, I forgot to put a memory card in the camera, so no shots this day - fortunately I have a photograph of a near identical of this stunner from 2009 (below).BALTIC YEAR LIST108. Brown Hairstreak (103 for Lithuania) 21 August. Druskininkai.Southern border areas again. Basic reason to be in this region was to search for potential vagrants from more southerly parts of Europe, for example Clouded Yellow, Berger's Clouded Yellow or, probably unlikely these days, Danube Clouded Yellow.With temperatures topping 26 C, a fine day it turned out, 28 species seen in all, with exceptional numbers of some late butterflies - my highest ever single day count, I estimated a minimum of 460 Red Admirals were present, quite possibly quite an under-estimate. Alongside, also at least 80 Queen of Spain Fritillaries, another personal record for a day count. And much more too - ten Weaver's Fritillaries, five Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries, five tatty Silver-spotted Skippers, a couple of small colonies of Reverdin's Blues and, wonderfully fresh individuals, seven Chalkhill Blues.Checked two main localities along the border, numerous butterflies at both, but numbers of migrant butterflies were decidedly low - a mere seven Painted Ladies and six Pale Clouded Yellows. However, late afternoon, I hit the jackpot - the deep yellows of a Clouded Yellow catching my eye. Typical of the species, it was highly mobile, flying at speed across the territory, appearing to have actually  flown in from Belarus. Went racing after it, had it settle for a brief second, before it stormed off north, eventually rising over a line of trees to vanish into Lithuania's interior! Clicked my camera wildly at the rapidly disappearing butterfly, a vivid yellow blurry blob the result.BALTIC YEAR LIST109. Clouded Yellow (104 for Lithuania)  22 August. Pabrade.Labanoras fairly quiet, so decided to cut back to the military areas near Pabrade. Rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire at the first block, but fortunately all clear at my favoured site some 3 km further. Camberwell Beauty to welcome me, then a steady procession of Red Admirals and occasional Painted Ladies as I walked the kilometre or so to the central open areas. 26 C again,  bright sun, I had high hopes of further Tree Graylings on the heath. And I was not disappointed - a little beyond where I encountered them the previous week, I found no less than four this time. Slightly faded, especially the creamy rings, but nice all the same. Also, remnants of flights earlier in the season, a couple of Rock Graylings in the same area, a dozen Silver-studded Blues too. Wandering back to the car, added single Wall Browns and Speckled Woods, quite probably my last of the year in Lithuania.</blockquote>

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