Purple Hairstreak Time

With Everything being a bit earlier this year I've been on the lookout for Purple Hairstreaks on the patch recently. Starting with the trees on which I have recorded them previously, I came across the first one's on the warm sunny evening of July 10th.They are small and elusive, easily missed among the leaves of an Oak, but often in the afternoon or evening they get more showy flitting between leaves, usually in the upper half of the tree.And once you get your eye in you seem to pick up more and more.
My closest encounter came around midday on the 12th July, which was very warm and humid.

Purple Hairstreak 12/07/2014

So far  I have found a total of 6 trees in which the species has been flying, with 2-4 individuals in each. I also found another tree with egg on it in December, but have to get round to checking that for adults ..with so many potential sites on the patch it will be interesting to study exactly how abundant this species is, assuming the weather prevails.