LIVING WORLD - GREEN HAIRSTREAK (320kbs-m4a/49mb/21mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 10th August 2014
The Living World is a natural history strand that revels in rich encounter, immersion in the natural world and warm, enthusiastic story telling.
The Green Hairstreak butterfly is small, bright green and feisty. The males fight for females, spiralling in the air at break neck speed. This lovely butterfly was not recorded in the Pentland Hills, south of Edinburgh, until 20 years ago but now populations are being discovered in more and more places. Sensitive management is helping bring back this bright jewel to the bilberry and heather clad hills. By excluding sheep and letting gorse and bilberry grow together the right conditions now exist. Green Hairstreak only appear on the wing in May and Victor Partridge takes Mary Colwell to see where he first spotted them in the Pentland Hills.
