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Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire - Bulletin 23

January 2006

Dear Brownhairstreakers,

There has been so much happening on the Brown Hairstreak front over the last couple of weeks that it is difficult to know quite where to start.

The training day for local landowners on the new Environmental Stewardship scheme which took place on 26th January went extremely well with 25 people there, including representation from 15 local farms. Thanks to the efforts of Becky Lashley of the Worcestershire Biodiversity Partnership and Jane Ellis from Butterfly Conservation, everyone went away with considerable degrees of enthusiasm about managing their land for Brown Hairstreaks and other wildlife. Several farmers have promised to look for Brown Hairstreak eggs on their land and report back on their findings and hopefully the day will result in further applications to the stewardship scheme. Looking at the list of those who attended, a few years ago we would probably have been rather pessimistic about the chances of Brown Hairstreaks being found on land north of Hanbury or east of Feckenham but our experience, especially this winter, has taught us to be much less cautious. Since the last Bulletin, we have continued to add new 1km squares to the Brown Hairstreak's distribution map and we have now reached the dizzy heights of 81 squares. For those trying to keep a running total, the new squares are SP0155/0255/0153 and SO9354/9553/9551/9552/9953 but probably the easiest reference is the West Midlands Butterfly Conservation website  where the latest map is displayed:

www.westmidlandsbutterflyconservation.org.uk

Can we reach the magic ton before the end of the egg hunting season?

Most of these additional squares were the result of our third egg hunt day on 29th January which again was a great success. We were particularly pleased to welcome Mrs Gent, Head Teacher of Himbleton Primary School together with around 25 children and parents. The children spent the morning searching for eggs in Grafton Wood along with the Reserve Manager John Tilt and his wife, Miriam plus Becky Lashley which proved very successful. All the children managed to find eggs and should have a headstart on their classmates when the school does its own egg hunt around Himbleton village with Becky on 21st February.

While the children were proving their skills at egghunting, the rest of us toured the lanes of east Worcestershire trying to target those areas where eggs have not yet been recorded. We began by visiting the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust reserve at Long Meadow near Radford. This is one of the Trust's smaller reserves, very hidden away by the side of the Piddle Brook and surrounded by mixed farmland. Its main interest is botanical, with many plants typical of old lowland meadows and it is managed as a hay meadow. It is a rare survivor of what years ago must have been a commonplace feature of the Forest of Feckenham. On the north side is a band of very tall hawthorn bushes which provide a valuable food source for wintering birds. Years ago, it would have been much more open with tall grasses and meadow flowers but progressively the hawthorn has encroached and little of the original grassland remains. However, in one area a scallop had been cut into the bank which had encouraged a few grassland species and also young blackthorn to regenerate. Most of the hedgerows we had passed while walking to the reserve had been severely trimmed and contained more hawthorn than blackthorn so this seemed to be the best chance we would have of finding an egg in this particular square. After 10 minutes or so searching, Simon Bond, who had come out egg hunting only for the first time a fortnight previously, managed to locate an egg low down on a blackthorn plant. Thus Long Meadow became the fourth Trust reserve within the Forest of Feckenham to provide a home to the Brown Hairstreak; the others being the new reserve at Humpy Meadow, Feckenham Wylde Moor and, of course, the jointly owned reserve with Butterfly Conservation at Grafton Wood. This is excellent news, as is the announcement in the latest Trust newsletter that the Forest of Feckenham has been designated as a priority conservation area within the county, which makes it the focus of future conservation action and land acquisition. The Brown Hairstreak is very much the flagship species for this landscape based approach within the Forest of Feckenham as it is principally a farmland species dependent on a network of woodland, with interconnecting well managed hedgerows and herb-rich grasslands, if it is to thrive. There is no doubt that if we can improve its status through better hedgerow and woodland management, there will be benefits for many other forms of wildlife. This is an exciting project with lots of challenges but we have made a good start and Butterfly Conservation will be continuing to work closely with the Wildlife Trust in the months ahead to turn this vision into reality.

Another important partner within our Hedgerows for Hairstreaks project is DEFRA who administer the Environmental Stewardship scheme. This is a key element within the project as it is this scheme which provides the grants to local farmers to enable them to manage their land in an environmentally friendly way. An example of how this partnership works is that all of our recording data is fed through by Trevor Bucknall, West Midlands Butterfly Conservation's Worcestershire Conservation Officer, to the local DEFRA office for inclusion on their base maps. In this way, DEFRA staff can see exactly where the Brown Hairstreak has been found and are in a position to target particular farmers with details of the Environmental Stewardship scheme. Together with training days, this should prove a really good way of reaching key landowners and we are delighted that local staff are taking such a proactive role.

Our final partner is of course the local community and this is where our Local Champions scheme comes into play. By becoming a local Brown Hairstreak champion you are not only doing your bit for wildlife but also demonstrating that the quality of the local environment is important to you. Ultimately, what is good for butterflies and other wildlife is good for people as well so please encourage your neighbours and friends to join in. Just complete and send in the tear-off slip from our Local Champion leaflet or simply send me an email asking to be added to the mailing list. Hopefully, our series of egg hunt days will have demonstrated that finding eggs is not as difficult as people might imagine and will have inspired you to have a try on your own local patch. If you would like a suggestion of areas to search please get in touch. All we need to know in return is the number of eggs found if any, the date searched and the exact location (ideally a 6 figure grid reference) of where you found them. We shall be holding other community events later in the Spring, details of which will be published later. One event that people should put in their diaries now, however, is the annual Grafton Wood reserve open day on Sunday, 23rd April from 11 am - 5 pm at the Three Parishes Village Hall at Grafton Flyford. More details to follow but always a good day out for all the family.

Mike Williams
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion