Brown Hairstreak Bulletin 116
Dear Brownhairstreakers,
Rather a lot has happened since I sent out my first e-bulletin back in November! Last Saturday marked the final instalment of our annual three Grafton Wood ‘official’ searches. Numbers of eggs appear slightly down on last year on the core hedges outside the wood, but I think, with two key areas still to search within the wood, that numbers there will be fairly similar to last winters’.
Out and about in Worcestershire, the picture appears slightly different and numbers of eggs being found seem to be slightly up on last year. Nowhere is this more so than the Shurnock area (east of Feckenham village) where Geoff Thompson has, on his own, admirably (and tirelessly!) carried out an extensive search of the area north of the Salt Way. His total of 440 eggs marks a very large increase on last years' figure. Part of this increase is undoubtedly due to some management work we did last winter to cut down old blackthorn growth to promote suckering. These resultant suckers have in turn supported plenty of eggs this season.
We were also invited to visit a farm to the west of Feckenham in order to advise the very enthusiastic ‘Brown Hairstreak Supporter' owners on the best areas to conduct some overdue hedge flailing, which hadn't been carried out for two or three years. We decided that the best approach was to do a full egg search of all the hedgerows that were in the area to be considered for flailing. The results were extraordinary and over 400 eggs were found on these few hedgerows and it enabled us to advise our friends which hedges were the best ones to leave alone, which to simply cut the tops off, and which to fully flail. This farm is a brilliant illustration of how farming strategy can be implemented alongside detailed Brown Hairstreak conservation and this area, together with Shurnock - where a similar approach to conservation exists - represent the two strongest Worcs hot-spots for the butterfly, away from Grafton Wood.
Jenny Tonry and Paul Meers have been busy searching at Feckenham Wylde Moor NR and have so far found 68 eggs there.
We have also had time over the last couple of months to make a few visits elsewhere in the county and the best results we’ve achieved in that respect are a record find of 67 eggs in Morton Stanley Park in Redditch (up from 23 last winter), including 6 on newly grown suckers in an area where old blackthorn had been cut down by the park volunteer group, in response to our requests. We also looked at another area in Redditch (in Oakenshaw) where we’ve unsuccessfully searched for eggs during previous winters, and this time came up trumps! Three eggs were found at the east end of Granger’s Lane confirming our hopes, as mentioned in my previous e-bulletin, that the butterfly will continue its spread through Redditch using the green corridors of the ring road system there.
We then found a few eggs just before Christmas at two of our smaller Worcs Wildlife Trust reserves: 3 at Humpy Meadow and 7 at the new Baynhall Meadows site.
Into the new year and a couple of Thursdays ago we searched the area around the known assembly tree at Cowsden,and recorded 41 eggs there. This was slightly up on the last time we searched this area, a couple of winters ago. And finally, we found a single egg in a newly recorded 1Km grid-square last week - the elusive SO 9650 - our first new square find this season!
All in all, we have now recorded over 1800 eggs in Worcs so far this winter, which is amazing. Only a few weeks ago I wrote an article for the West Mids BC Comma magazine saying we were quickly closing in on 1000 Brown Hairstreak eggs for this winter but here I am now, looking at a target for the season end of a record breaking 2000 eggs!!
The ‘Thursday Streakers’ meet 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 usually move on from there and drive to other sites).
Finally, a reminder of the regular work parties that take place in both Grafton and Trench Woods over the winter. 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