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Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire - Bulletin 37

December 2006

Dear Brownhairstreakers,

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Xmas and is looking forward to the traditional New Year's Eve Brown Hairstreak egg hunt this coming Sunday. Our first egg foray of the season on 17th went well although attendance was a little disappointing compared to previous years. Perhaps the call of shopping the weekend before Xmas was too great for some people! Anyway, with Xmas over there can be no further excuses. All in all, we managed 121 eggs in 9.25 person hours of search, roughly the equivalent number of eggs as we found last winter on the same hedgerows, although the number of eggs on individual hedgerows showed considerable variation. Thanks to Becky Lashley remembering to bring marker tape, we managed to record the position of around 100 eggs which hopefully will be of assistance in our continuing efforts to monitor the larvae next Spring. We are meeting this Sunday at the usual place and time - 10.00 am at Grafton Flyford Church - with the added incentive of a mince pie and a cup of mulled wine for everyone managing to find an egg! We are hoping that with a good turnout we can complete the core area count which will mean that on our next public egg hunt day on 21st January we can concentrate on doing some wider recording.

Last winter, we managed to expand the known range of the Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire (and Warwickshire!) from 54 to 112 1km squares, a doubling of the distribution map in a single season! It is hard to imagine that we will repeat this feat over the coming months but there is no doubt that we have still some way to go in mapping the total distribution. As reported last time, Trevor Bucknall has already found five additional squares and hopefully some of our Brown Hairstreak local champions will also have a try at searching new squares.

Some rather splendid winter sunshine tempted me out of the house on 29th December and, at long last, I managed to find an egg in SO9458 which is the square containing Himbleton village. This was particularly pleasing as there had been a number of previous attempts to record this square but without success. I also had a look at the squares immediately south and south-east of Droitwich but there was little blackthorn and what there was had been largely flailed. Most promising was Hay Lane which runs eastwards from Shernal Green towards Goosehill Green. Other squares definitely worth trying are SO9156 and 9256 (around Crowle village) and the series of squares heading north of Crowle along Netherwood Lane. The hedgerows bordering the lane are pretty solid blackthorn and, given the road is only a short distance from the south-western edge of Trench Wood, prospects of finding eggs here ought to be good. I rather ran out of time on 29th and with light fading fast could only make a quick assessment.

Lower down towards the Oddingley level crossing where the blackthorn remained unflailed looked the most promising. Other obvious gaps, with eggs already recorded in adjacent squares, include SO9952, SP0052 and 0152 all west of Yeald Wood and the two squares west of Bishampton SO9751 and 9851. The latest distribution map can be downloaded from the Butterfly Conservation West Midlands branch website at www.westmidlandsbutterflyconservation.org.uk and I will also bring copies along to the egg hunt on 31st December. For those that haven't been before, do bring plenty of layers of clothing and a magnifying glass if you have one. Hope to see you there.

Mike Williams,
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion