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Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire - Bulletin 45

July 2007

Dear Brownhairstreakers,

  We have lift off - Worcestershire's Brown Hairstreaks are on the wing.  Alright, on the wing might be a slight exagerration but they are sitting in trees at least!  Bob Steele and Richard Southwell share the honour for first sightings this year with a male in Bob's own wood on 4th August and both a male and female at Grafton the same day.  Our colleagues in Butterfly Conservation's Upper Thames branch once again pipped us to the post with their first record coming on 28th July but there had been even earlier reports from further south.  The fact that Richard saw a female does suggest, however, that the Worcestershire colony had also probably begun to emerge before the end of July.  Our first 'official' attempt to locate Brown Hairstreaks was last Sunday when we held our annual Assembly Tree survey at Grafton Wood.  Thanks to some eagle-eyed observers this went well and we had three separate sightings: one a certain female and, the other two, probable males.  Last year, there were a number of sightings from other parts of the country of adults being spotted in oak trees rather than ash and it was therefore interesting that our first sighting turned out to be high in an oak tree.  This is an oak, however, not far from the hedgerow ash where we have seen adults before halfway between Grafton Flyford church and the wood.  In fact, later on we found another adult actually in this ash tree which means that it has been used at least three years out of the past four.  The female Brown Hairstreak we saw on the very large ash at the start of the hedgerow leading down to the orchard on the western side of the wood (the one all of you who have been involved in our egg counts will know as Hedgerow A).  This is an ash tree considerably larger than those we have previously recorded adults and it will be interesting to see whether this is just a one-off or whether there will be repeat sightings.  We deliberately started our survey at an earlier start time this year which apparently caused some confusion and apologies to anyone who turned up later and missed us.  The idea of starting earlier stemmed from John Tilt's observations of two years ago when he saw 20+ Brown Hairstreaks early in the day and far fewer later.  Certainly, our experiences at the weekend seemed to back this up as we saw our first two hairstreaks before 10 am and then no further sightings until we were on our way back at around 1 pm.  The inactivity of the butterflies, however, didn't really help us to spot them nor the fact that all three were within the foliage with wings closed rather than basking on the extremities of the tree.  I would be interested to hear of any other observations on this issue or any explanations of this behaviour.

  With the weather we have experienced this summer and with half of Worcestershire under floodwater only a fortnight ago, I was rather fearful as to whether we would see any Brown Hairstreaks at all this year so I guess, on balance, three is a reasonable start.  The only disappointment was that none were seen at ground level and, although we enjoyed on the whole excellent views, it was with the aid of binoculars and telescopes.  Conditions underfoot have been so bad at Grafton that we had to cancel this year's Butterflies, Bugs and Botany Day on 22nd July which is the first time we have ever had to call off an event in this way.  Thankfully, the situation is now much improved and most of the surface water has disappeared although good boots or wellies are still probably a good idea if anyone is hoping to visit in the next week or so.  Increasingly, there will be sightings within camera reach and I am always pleased to receive photos for inclusion in the ebulletin.  Since the weekend, I have received reports from John Tilt who saw one on 8th August actually within the wood while he was ride mowing, and also spoke to someone else who had seen an adult in the same hedgerow ash where we had seen one on the Sunday.  John returned with his scope today and there were two further probable sightings in the vicinity of the tree plus three possible Brown Hairstreaks elsewhere.  This tree certainly seems to be shaping up to be something of a hotspot this year.  Our next event on the Brown Hairstreak calendar is this coming Sunday, 12th August when we will be carrying out our annual blackthorn bash.  We meet at Grafton Flyford Church for 10 am before moving on to the wood owned by Bob Steele which is a short drive away.  The idea will be to work through to around 1 pm, have a suitably liquid lunch and then spend some time doing some hairstreak hunting in the afternoon.  The forecast for the weekend sounds encouraging and it generally proves a very enjoyable day so do come along and help swell the numbers.

Mike Williams,

Brown Hairstreak Species Champion