Brown Hairstreak in Kingston Cemetery

                     Brown Hairstreak egg on Blackthorn 1 of 4 found by R. Zussner.

 
Kingston Cemetery Nature Group are a group of volunteers meeting once a month at the Cemetery to carry out a range of practical tasks that support nature conservation. The cemetery is a Grade 1 Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). The groups tasks are relevant to the designation and include: tree and hedge planting, litter picking and some bramble clearance. 

Previous posts on this blog highlight the significance of the CHEGD and mycorrhizal fungi that have been recorded see Cemetery fungi  2020    2025 2019 2016   2014 . There are also posts on other taxa such as trees Cemetery Trees orchids and Slow Worms.

  Yesterday I photographed these Brown Hairstreak eggs, kindly shown to me by Ron, who found them recently. The photo below shows two orange eggs, one on either side of the BH egg, and it would be interesting to know whether these might be moth eggs.

                                            2 orange eggs each side of the BH egg


Brown Hairstreak records are limited to the south of the borough and have a strong hold in Tolworth and Chessington where there are several sites. Here are some photos of the butterfly at Tolworth Court Farm.Bill Downey 2017, Brown Hairstreak 2025

Purple Hairstreaks are recorded every year, but it is a case of being there at the right time on a summer evening and watching the top of a particular Oak tree in the upper cemetery.


 I also record the bird life in the cemetery, a practice I have carried out every year since the 1980s. In recent years my focus has been mainly on winter records, collected for the Surbiton and District Birdwatching Society, and on Dawn Chorus Day, when bird song is recorded. Although records have been patchy this winter, today was a particularly good day, with not only a good diversity of species but also notable numbers of Redwings, Blackbirds, and Teal on the Hogsmill.

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