BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
January 2008
Dear Brownhairstreakers,
Searching for eggs in recent weeks has proved something of a frustrating exercise at a personal level. Hedgerow cutting seems to have been particularly thorough this winter and on a number of occasions I have really had to struggle to find a single uncut blackthorn hedge. A good case in point was on New Year's Eve when I gave up totally on the square centred on Broughton Hackett. Not that I did any better around Churchill to the south although I did at least find some blackthorn to search. Other local champions have had similarly negative experiences. Richard Southwell drew a complete blank on the square around Gallows Green on the Droitwich-Hanbury road while new local champion John East and his son Simon were similarly eggless south of Bishampton. It is sometimes hard to fathom what possesses farmers when it comes to hedge trimming. Despite all the research that has been undertaken on the wildlife and economic benefits of cutting hedges on rotation and despite the existence of grant aid to support less intensive regimes, culture and tradition seem to still dictate that annual trimming is the norm. Certainly, after an encouraging start, I am now feeling much less optimistic as to the overall impact of the various agri-environment schemes on the way the countryside is managed. It would be interesting to hear from our colleagues at Defra about the current level of take-up within the Forest of Feckenham.
Despite all this, we are still managing to record eggs in new squares or rather one of us is! While the rest of us have struggled, Trevor Bucknall has so far found eggs in eight new squares: SO92/61, 93/61, 94/61, 97/63, 98/63, 99/63, SP00/63 and 02/64 which brings the total of 1km squares to 143. Even Trevor has found it hard going at times with, for example, the two eggs recorded in SO97/63 only found after an hour and a half of searching. I have to confess to a rush of blood to the head in the last ebulletin when I claimed that by the end of last winter we had reached 140 squares. A number of you quite rightly demanded a recount and the figure was actually 135! My target for this winter is to reach 150 squares so we still have some way to go.
More positive news is that, thanks to a really good turnout of people at the end of December, our core count of Brown Hairstreak eggs has been completed for the season. Overall, figures are slightly down on the previous year but still very healthy. This can be largely explained by the lack of suitability of some of the hedgerows which are reaching the point where management is required. For many years, Natural England (formerly English Nature) has supported management work around Grafton Wood and this has proved crucial in maintaining hedgerows in good condition for egglaying. Despite recents cuts in budgets it is vital that this work continues. The one hedgerow transect which actually showed a significant increase in eggs was the one where management funded through Natural England has occurred over the past two years.
This coming Saturday, 26th January sees our final official egg hunt of the year, although some of us still have the perils of the M5 motorway ahead of us. With the core count out of the way we can have a try at doing some square bashing and hopefully we will have more success as a group than some of us have had singly! We shall be meeting at Grafton Flyford Church at 10.30 am but will then drive on from there so please endeavour to be on time. If you do happen to be running a few minutes late give me a ring on my mobile 07802 274552 and I can let you know where we are heading.
Mike Williams
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion