Friday 6 July 2018

Purple Haze

Purple Hairstreak


Purple haze was in my mind as soon as I entered the wood - in this case, Giant Bellflower (Campanula latifolia) rather than pharmaceutical in origin. Clouds of Ringlets flew up along the rides. And then ... an electric purple flash from a funny-looking Ringlet. The Purple Hairstreak is our commonest Hairstreak but is not often noticed. By 8am the show was over - the Hairstreaks were flying at a million miles an hour, could not be approached and were headed for the tree tops. But an hour in a glade of Purple Hairstreaks had made the world seem a less loathsome place. And after weeks of involuntary "It's coming home", it's good to finally have a new earworm.

Purple Hairstreak to me
Purple Hairstreak to me
Purple Hairstreak
Purple Hairstreak
Purple Hairstreak to me.



Purple Hairstreak, Favonius quercus.

Sony ILCE-7RM2
FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS
f8 1/80 ISO 3200
4 image stack, Zerene DMAX