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Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire - Bulletin 1

January 2005

Dear Brown Hairstreakers,

Just a reminder that our next planned egg hunt is next Saturday, 22nd January meeting at 10.00 am outside Grafton Flyford church. The plan is to try to finish off our egg count of the orchard to the west of Grafton Wood and then, depending on numbers, time and weather have a crack at the hedgerow on Mr. Hocknell's land heading towards the Red Hart and possibly the Hunt meadow to the north. All these hedgerows are part of our core area where we count eggs every year so that we can judge how well the butterfly is faring. All will be very welcome and do bring along anyone else you think might be interested. We will probably go on to around lunchtime but it is probably a good idea to bring a hot drink with you.

Yesterday, some of us attended a national Brown Hairstreak workshop in Wiltshire which brought together people from different parts of the country to discuss the various projects going on to help conserve the butterfly. It proved a very informative day and has given us lots of interesting ideas on things we might do this coming Spring and Summer. Watch this space.

One bit of good news since our Egg Hunt last weekend is that Trevor has managed to find eggs in square SO 96/59 just east of Earl's Common which makes our 40th 1km square in which we have recorded Brown Hairstreak locally. Trevor reckons that if they are in this square they should also be in the square to the east SO 97/59 which is the square containing Lower Hollowfields Farm. There look to be plenty of footpaths in that square some of which follow the hedgerow so if anyone fancies taking up this challenge over the coming week please feel free and let us know what you find (negative results are just as useful as positives).

Look forward to seeing at least some of you on Saturday.

Best Wishes,

Mike Williams,
Brown Hairstreak 'Champion'