Short-lived excitement

I was walking in one of my absolute favourite places, Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve, this afternoon when two other visitors drew my attention to an orange butterfly they had spotted nectaring on a plant of Wild Angelica. I could not believe my eyes - a pristine Brown Hairstreak! As far as I knew it does not get this far north. However, it was very well behaved and stayed around for a few photos.

On returning to the flat where I'm staying in Silverdale I contacted the Butterfly Recorder for Lancashire (my sighting was about 200m from the border with Cumbria!) to report it. She confirmed that it was almost certainly a release by some mischievous breeder. However, it made my day - in Bucks/Oxon I spend most of my time searching for eggs and rarely see an adult butterfly.