Could I have picked a worse summer to focus on butterflies? The rain and wind through July doesn't seem to be about to depart the scene in early August at least, so with a brief respite with at least a modest amount of sunshine yesterday afternoon we decided to hit Greenfield Valley to look for Purple Hairstreak. This is a species I'd never seen before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I feared it might be rather challenging. Turned out, however, that seeing them was easy. In fact, seeing them in numbers was easy. However, seeing them well was difficult. Photographing them was difficulter. And photographing them well was difficultest.
Almost every time we got a clear view of the crown of an oak tree in decent sunshine we managed views of them chasing and spiraling about.
Views through bins were tolerable at best, and my poor attempts at photos are attached. Not proud of them, and will try for better, if not this year, then next.
34 - Purple Hairstreak, Greenfield Valley