Green Hairstreaks at Donna Nook

 For a change,Tuesday 9th May turned out to be potentially favourable for photographing the tiny green hairstreak butterflies at Donna Nook on the Lincolnshire Coast. Green hairstreaks are the only British butterfly to have green wings and with a wingspan of only 30mm are very small, in fact the UK's smallest butterfly is the small blue which has a wingspan of 27mm.

Roger and I arrived in the car park at the same time and were soon heading along the dunes to search for our target. Disconcertingly the sky had clouded over since leaving home but we were encouraged by the blue sky to the north from where the weather was coming and the sun soon appeared. Green hairstreaks are very faithful to territory and, as it is an annual pilgrimage for us to find these beautiful butterflies, we knew where to go. Although they can be found all along the Lincolnshire coast, their favoured location at Donna Nook is only about 50 square metres.

Nearly as soon as we reached the spot we found our first individual and as the sun warmed up and they became more active, we eventually found 10. Despite having emerged a couple of weeks previously most were in superb condition. One or two, though, were starting to look worn so we had only just got there in time.

There followed a couple of hours of delightful photography. Keeping half an ear out for birds as well, I enjoyed hearing the scratchy song of the plentiful whitethroats and my first cuckoo of the year elicited the usual thrill.