Brown Hairstreak Bulletin 115
Dear Brownhairstreakers,
Firstly, apologies for the late arrival of this - my first Brown Hairstreak Bulletin - due to some email address admin problems that I’ve encountered in taking over the task from Mike! None of it his fault, I would hasten to add!!
Well, I think we can safely conclude that the 2014 Brown Hairstreak flight period is now over, although we did again manage an October sighting, at Grafton Wood on 1st, being observed by members of the Wednesday work party. As far as I’m aware though, that was the last sighting made in Worcestershire.
So - what sort of a season has it been for the butterfly? Maybe a bit early to make too much of an assessment - as numbers of eggs found over the winter will provide a much more accurate conclusion - but overall my gut feeling is that it’s been a fairly average sort of year for Brownies. Certainly we haven’t received reports of the very large numbers of adult sightings that we did last year, although I think 2013 was a truly exceptional year. This year very few males were seen nectaring on flowers at ‘ground-level’ which was an indication that they were finding plenty of their preferred 'tree-based’ food sources, the reverse of which happened last year. However, some very good sightings were still recorded, one of the best being by Mike who witnessed at least five males flying around a large Ash on Hollowfields Road, early in August. Our annual Open Day at the end of August was again very well attended, and as far as I know everyone who came along managed to get fine views of at least one female Brownie who was extremely obliging and stayed within close photographic range for 20 minutes or so, before flying off.
Slightly disappointing was the lack of any reported sightings from the Redditch area, despite a concerted publicity campaign, although we will still be targeting this area over the winter with egg searches as we feel there is tremendous scope for the butterfly to spread rapidly through the extensive green corridors, mainly consisting of blackthorn, which populate the ring-road system there.
The egg hunting season got off to a flying start on Thursday 2nd October with a visit to the National Grid sub-station to the east of Feckenham. We were accompanied by Caroline from the Wildlife Trust and Harriet Lam who’s a Sustainability Advisor with National Grid and, as well as admiring the huge amount of work that National Grid have carried out at the site - aimed at increasing biodiversity (but predominantly with the Brown Hairstreak in mind!) - and discussing outline plans for further blackthorn management; we also recorded 124 eggs across the site, a substantial increase from 2013.
The ‘Thursday Streakers’ are now meeting every Thursday (at 10am in Grafton Church car park) and everyone is welcome to come along and join in - it is great fun! (If you are intending to join us though, and have not come before/or are not regulars, then please let me know beforehand as we always move on from there and drive to other sites).
Some other dates for your diary: We have organised three of our annual Grafton Wood egg search days. These are all on Saturdays and are: 29th November; 3rd January (the ‘New Year’s Day’ egg hunt with mulled wine and mince pies AND, if I get my act together in time, Sloe Gin!); and 31st January - meeting each time at 10am in the church car park.
Finally, a reminder of the regular work parties that take place in both Grafton and Trench Woods over the winter. Numbers of volunteers have dropped off recently at both reserves and extra help is needed. Conservation days are held virtually every week and further details are available from the respective reserve managers: John Tilt in respect of Grafton Wood and John Holder for Trench. If you can help it will be much appreciated.
Simon Primrose,
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion,
West Midlands Butterfly Conservation