HOME__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire - Bulletin 5

February 2005

Dear Brown Hairstreakers,

Six hardy souls withstood the cold to do a bit of square bashing last weekend with mixed results. Rob and Rose Mabbett were first up on Saturday and looked at the Littleworth square (SO 9962) and the squares immediately to the west (SO 9862) and south (SO 9961) but found relatively little blackthorn and no eggs (although they did find a stray dog!). The other four of us met at Bradley Green on Sunday and decided to split forces, with Richard Southwell and Peter Seal going across to the Butterfly Conservation and Wildlife Trust reserve at Trench Wood and Trevor Bucknall and myself going in the Feckenham direction. We wanted to take a look at Trench as we had received a reliable report of an adult being seen there last autumn by a Trust member (SO 9358) and, as this is somewhat to the west of the known range of the butterfly, it would have been good to confirm breeding. Blackthorn is a bit hard to come by within Trench Wood itself but the southern edge of Sale Green Wood immediately to the south-west (SO 9257) looked more promising and, although no eggs were found, the area probably warrants a further visit. There is also a footpath running along the southern edge of nearby Fillet Wood which may be worth exploring. Richard and Peter went on to look at the square (SO 9554) immediately south of Libbery, where Richard had found the 50th square a few weeks ago, but this time without success. Trevor and myself started by looking in on an SSSI meadow, south of the Droitwich-Feckenham road, but still within the SO 9961square, which we had been asked to look at by English Nature. There was no complaint about shortage of blackthorn here, much of it in superb condition but, despite this, it took a good 20 minutes of searching before we turned up a single egg. Driving on to Feckenham village we looked first at the top corner of square SP 0161 and, although we found some blackthorn, most of it had been flailed and we found no eggs. It looked as if it might be the same story for the next square (SP 0162) but eventually we found one egg on a roadside hedgerow which had somehow managed to escape the flail. Encouraged by this new record, we ventured into SP 0163 and again found a single egg along the edge of a field making this the most northerly record so far. The next square SP 0063 proved at least for this year one step too far and no eggs were found.

We are not planning any more official egg searches this winter but do not let this deter people from venturing out independently. The latest discoveries push the number of 1 km squares up to 54 which is certainly an impressive achievement given that this time last year the known distribution only covered 39 squares. If people do want to have a try on their own, some squares that would be worth a look include SP 0158/0159 (Moreton Underhill and the square below) and SP0155 which is immediately east of Radford but be quick as a lot of the blackthorn is close to flowering. It is worth getting hold of an Explorer series map covering the area which clearly shows field boundaries and search out public rights of way ideally running east-west along the south side of a hedgerow or a woodland edge. Roadside hedges are also worth a look irrespective of aspect. It is then a question of finding blackthorn that has not been too severely flailed (easier said than done this time of year). Even on a flailed hedge, suckers at the base sometimes survive and also around gateways and field entrances.

Next winter, we will try to start our square bashing in November/December before the main season for flailing as it has often felt in recent weeks, away from our core area where we have control over management, that we are not really counting eggs per se but rather counting eggs that have survived the flail. As far as east Worcestershire is concerned the new entry level Stewardship scheme cannot come soon enough.

Happy hairstreaking.

Mike Williams