HOME__________________________________________________________________________________________________
HOME__________________________________________________________________________________________________
September 2005
Dear Brown Hairstreakers,
Not had the time to get over to Hairstreak land since my return from holiday but
reports suggest there are still plenty of females on the wing. Miriam Tilt is
pretty confident that she saw one in her garden in Flyford Flavell during last
week and Trevor Bucknall saw as many as five while carrying out management work
in Grafton Wood on 24th September, including an egg-laying female at the top of
the new glade we have created north of the orchard. While on holiday, I was
fortunate enough to be invited to join a Butterfly Conservation South Wales
branch field trip to a Brown Hairstreak site near Carmarthen. The location was a
very sheltered and steep sided stream valley with plentiful blackthorn growing
along the stream and on the lower slopes - a site a long way removed from the
intensively farmed landscape we are used to in Worcestershire. Like us, the
South Wales branch has been monitoring the site for eggs and trying to identify
assembly trees. There was a good turnout of people and, during the course of the
morning, 4 females were seen; all still in very good condition. Low intensity
farming at this particular site means that the Brown Hairstreak is pretty well
able to look after itself, with blackthorn generally remaining uncut and being
allowed to sucker freely. Quite a contrast to Worcs, where the norm has been for
highly intensive hedgerow management with annual flailing.
While we are not yet into the egg counting season, a number of females have been
witnessed egg-laying and casual searches of blackthorn have turned up several
eggs. There does seem to have been something of a time lag, however, between our
first sightings of females and the appearance of eggs. The impression is that
despite females being on the wing, as we have discovered this year, from late
July onwards, most of the eggs are not laid until September which on the face of
it seems rather strange. I think it would be interesting next year to set up an
egg transect along a stretch of hedgerow that we know is generally good for
egg-laying and undertake weekly counts from the beginning of August onwards.
This way we would get a clearer view of when the majority of eggs are laid. As
well as being interesting from an ecological point of view, it might help us in
terms of the timing of practical management work. If you might be interested in
helping with this let me know. If we can get a group of volunteers together we
could perhaps share the responsibility between us.
Talking of volunteers, I would like to welcome two new Brown Hairstreak
champions: Jan Kenyon from Arrow and Mrs Gent, Headteacher at Himbleton Primary
School. Jan has already attended several Brown Hairstreak events and is hoping
to join in with our forthcoming local winter egg counts, while Mrs Gent is
leading the way in involving the next generation of butterfly conservationists
(see below). Brown Hairstreak champions, as well as having the satisfaction of
helping with the conservation of this very attractive butterfly, which is found
nowhere else in the Midlands, are kept in touch with all the latest news via the
e-bulletin and are also eligible for free blackthorn plants for local planting.
If you know anyone who might be interested do put them in touch.
We are also delighted to welcome our first Junior Champions in the shape of the
children from Himbleton Primary School. Brownhairstreakers will already have
seen the email circulated by Becky Lashley who will be helping the children to
carry out their own egg hunt in the area surrounding their school on Monday,
21st February, 2006. The plan is to spend an hour or so in the morning making
butterfly lifecycle wheels to get the kids tuned in (apparently they already
raise their own caterpillars), to talk about why Brown Hairstreak is important
and the type of habitat they will be looking at, and then to spend the rest of
the day outside having a walk looking for any signs of spring and stopping at
strategic sites to look for eggs. These will then be marked so that the children
can come back later and look for the caterpillars. Becky, for those who have not
yet met her, is the new Community Wildlife Officer with the Worcestershire
Biodiversity Partnership and is working to encourage local people and groups
within part of the Forest of Feckenham to learn more about and celebrate its
biodiversity, undertake more recording, and work towards the eventual production
of a biodiversity vision map. This is an exciting initiative and we are hoping
to work closely with Becky on a number of joint activities over the coming 18
months. If anyone is free on the day to assist Becky with the Year 3 children at
Himbleton School (8-9 year olds) do please get in touch.
We have now set dates for our winter egg searches. We have decided to start a
little earlier this year and get in our first egg hunt this side of Xmas. We
know that a Sunday does not suit everyone, so we have fixed the first egg hunt
for a Saturday. The date is 17th December meeting outside Grafton Flyford Church
for 10.00 am. Depending on weather and turnout, we will probably go on to the
early afternoon but if people need to leave earlier that is fine. With plenty of
adult sightings this year, this will be our first chance to see if this has been
translated into good breeding success. For those already with 2006 diaries,
subsequent egg hunt days have been set for 15th and 29th January, both meeting
at the Church for 10.00 am, but I will give people a reminder nearer the day.
Anyway, do make a note now of the December date as we are hoping for a good
turnout on that day to ensure our annual count gets off to a flying start.
Finally, in the New Year, we are planning with other partner organisations a
training day for local landowners on the new Environmental Stewardship scheme.
This new scheme has replaced Countryside Stewardship and offers further
incentives to farmers to manage their land to the benefit of wildlife. We have
already seen considerable benefits for the Brown Hairstreak and many other forms
of wildlife from the existing scheme so we are very optimistic about the
potentially positive impact from the recent changes. The provisional date for the
training day is 26th January, 2006 and we will put full details in a future
bulletin. In the meantime, any enquiries should be addressed to jellis@butterfly-conservation.org
.......and finally, finally just a reminder that we have now restarted our
monthly management days in Grafton Wood and we would welcome new faces on the
second Sunday of every month (next one 9th October) through to next March. The
meeting arrangements are the same as for the egg hunts - 10.00 am at the church.
Best Wishes,
Mike Williams,
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion