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Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire - Bulletin 33

September 2006

Dear Brownhairstreakers,

Thanks to everyone for continuing to send in their Brown Hairstreak records over the last couple of weeks. This has proved to be a record autumn for adult sightings with females being seen in unprecedented numbers. Numbers peaked in the last week in August with still reasonable numbers continuing up until the time of writing. Following good reports over the Bank Holiday weekend, John Tilt counted 12 at Grafton Wood on 29th August with a further 3 the following day, including an egg laying female. The 12 on 29th was particularly pleasing as John was accompanied by Mike Pilger from the BBC who managed lots of photos. We are hoping that Grafton Wood will be featured in next year's Nature of Britain programme. The same week, Bob Steele saw two on an oak tree in his own piece of woodland and, interestingly, a female egg-laying at 7' 6" on a mature blackthorn. Obviously one that had not read the right book!

We always worry about locating adults on our annual Brown Hairstreak Day at Grafton Wood, which this year took place on 3rd September, as often people travel from far afield in the hope of seeing the butterfly. Usually, we split people up into small groups and go off to different parts of the wood (maintaining mobile phone contact at all times!) but this year we were confident enough to keep everyone together as one large group. After another forlorn attempt to spot adults on one of our previously identified assembly trees, we very quickly saw two females low down along a hedgerow on the western side of the wood. Both were in good condition with tails still intact and proved extremely co-operative from a photography point of view. This was just as well, as around 25 people had turned up, including a large contingent from Butterfly Conservation's Warwickshire branch, most of whom were keen to get a shot. We were also able to show those interested Brown Hairstreak eggs along the same hedgerow. Mission accomplished, we had a gentle stroll through the wood before returning to the village hall for tea and cakes, with a big thank you to Miriam Tilt for laying on the latter.

Other September records, all from Grafton Wood, came from Simon Primrose on 6th, and three on both 10th and 12th by John Tilt. Most specimens still seemed in pretty good nick but Simon's photo of a female (apparently his first Brown Hairstreak in 15 years - no wonder he was pleased!) looked a little worse for wear. 10th September was the first Grafton Wood work party of the season and it was good to be able to show participants directly how Brown Hairstreaks were benefitting from all their hard work. Work parties at Grafton Wood take place on the second Sunday of the month right through to April and everyone is very welcome to join in. This year, we are hoping to tackle another coppice plot within the wood and also do some work to the edges of rides. As well as the opportunity of healthy and useful exercise, baked potatoes from the bonfire are an added incentive to come along. We meet at the car park by Grafton Flyford Church at 10.00 am.

For the second winter, with the support of the West Midlands Biodiversity Partnership, we will be able to supply free blackthorn whips for new planting and if any Brown Hairstreak Champions, local landowners or schools are interested in this please contact John Tilt on tel. 01386-792458 or by email at John.Tilt2@btopenworld.com A condition of the funding is that the landowner or their representative attends one of our egg training sessions and promises to let us know of any subsequent eggs found. Jane Ellis, one of our Regional Officers, is currently designing a special monitoring form that will be provided at the same time as the blackthorn. There will be a limit on the number of individual plants we can supply but if you, or someone you know, might be interested please get in touch as soon as possible. People receiving blackthorn will need to live in the Forest of Feckenham area but, if you are not sure whether you qualify, please ask. We shall be arranging dates for our winter egg hunt days, which will include a training session, shortly and these will be publicised in the next ebulletin.

Depending on weather, there should still be chances to see Brown Hairstreaks on the wing for the next couple of weeks or maybe longer. We have had a lot of sightings this year in the old orchard on the western side of the wood and also along the southern edge so these are probably the best places to try. If you spot any Hairstreaks please let me know and I would particularly welcome any photos people manage to take for possible inclusion in the next ebulletin. I would also be interested in hearing people's last sighting dates. Usually the last record for the year is early October with our latest ever being 14th October, 1994.

Mike Williams
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion