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BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
August 2008
Dear Brownhairstreakers,
The Brown Hairstreak season in Worcestershire is now well underway with a number of reports over the past three weeks. In typical Brown Hairstreak style, after Trevor Bucknall and myself had trudged unsuccessfully around Grafton Wood on 3rd, the first sighting came the following day! This year's prize for first Brown Hairstreak goes to local champion Martyn Ganderton although he does have the marked advantage of having an assembly tree in his parents' garden. The discovery of this tree has given us for the first time a real opportunity to try to get to grips with the butterfly's use of assembly trees and watch their behaviour over a sustained period. The tree in question is a young ash very similar in size to the hedgerow ash halfway to Grafton Wood from the church where we have also regularly seen adults in previous years. Most activity has been witnessed very early in the morning from 7 am onwards when the butterfly can be seen taking short flights in the upper reaches of the tree. Interestingly, this behaviour seems to occur almost irrespective of the weather with activity in cool and cloudy conditions as well as when the sun is shining. It may be that temperature and shelter is more important than direct sunlight and much of the activity has been focused on a portion of the tree that is protected from the wind but also faces in an eastwards direction where there is most chance of catching any early morning sun. It has proved difficult to estimate the exact numbers involved and whether the butterfly is a male or female as flights have often been rapid and short-lived and it has been sometimes impossible to see exactly where the butterfly has landed or to judge whether we are seeing repeated views of the same butterfly or different ones. It would be fascinating to find some way of getting up into the canopy of the tree and seeing what is really going on - perhaps a project for another year!
So far, I have managed three visits at weekly intervals and seen Brown Hairstreaks on each occasion. Numbers recorded have varied. On the first occasion on 9th August, in cloudy and breezy conditions between 8.10 and 9.00 a.m., I saw up to six individuals, probably all males, flying around the tree. It was difficult to work out what exactly prompted flight, in some cases there was interaction between individuals or perhaps with another insect, but more often flights seemed entirely random. The following weekend on 17th, weather was a little better although still on the cool side and I immediately saw 3 Brown Hairstreaks flying around the tree on arrival at 8.15 am. Overall, however, there was less activity than on my previous visit which seemed surprising given the improved weather. Just how inactive Brown Hairstreaks can be, was evidenced by a very fresh female that I located in my telescope around 8.20 that was still sitting in exactly the same spot, having not moved a centimetre, at 9.45 a.m. when I left. Apparently, the butterfly continued to sit tight until it was chased off by a male which flew into the tree from elsewhere around 10.30 a.m. - a stay of over 2 hours! Even this record was surpassed by another individual spotted by Martyn at 4 p.m. one afternoon, which was still there at 7 a.m. the next day. My latest visit on 23rd in company with John Tilt as well as Martyn was blessed with much sunnier weather and the Hairstreaks this time were very active. Getting a good view through binoculars or a telescope was fraught with difficulties as no sooner had they landed than they were off again but, between us, we managed to locate a good many of the individuals present. What was clearly apparent was that all the butterflies in the tree as far as we could see were male suggesting that most females have already departed to lay their eggs. If this is indeed the case, it will be interesting to see for how much longer the males continue to occupy the tree.
Certainly, a number of people have started to see females low down. John Tilt and others have seen several in and around Grafton Wood, while James Hitchcock, the new Reserves Officer for the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, was very fortunate to see a female at Feckenham Wylde Moor as early as 8th August (see photo). Many WWT staff go years before seeing their first Brown Hairstreak so to find one within a few weeks of starting his new job, and away from Grafton Wood as well, is doubly impressive! Eggs were first recorded on the reserve some years ago but as far as I am aware this was the first adult sighting.
As well as looking for Brown Hairstreaks, some of our local champions have been busy in recent weeks undertaking management work to benefit the butterfly. As well as our annual blackthorn bash at Bob Steele's wood, volunteers have also been cutting blackthorn on the southern edge of Grafton Wood and in the orchard to the west of the wood. This is work normally undertaken by contractors funded by Natural England but unfortunately the current Countryside Stewardship agreement that underpinned this ran out earlier in the year and had not been renewed. The good news, however, is that things are beginning to look more positive as far as future funding is concerned and we have been recently informed by Natural England that they are now in a position to fund more Higher Level Stewardship schemes. The advantage of HLS over Entry Level Stewardship, apart from the fact that higher grants are available, is that each agreement has to be accompanied by a properly worked out farm management plan which hopefully will get round some of the problems of ELS highlighted in our report produced earlier this year. The other positive news to report is that the Forest of Feckenham will now be a priority area for HLS schemes, which it has not been in the past, so any new applications will have a good chance of success as long as they have one or two features of interest. Natural England has also now found the funding for a training day for farmers and contractors which picks up on another recommendation from the report. This hopefully will take place later in the autumn and will cover the requirements of the Brown Hairstreak, guidance on hedgerow management and details of the funding available to pay for the desired works.
Interestingly, many of our local findings in connection with the operation of ELS have been picked up nationally in a recent review undertaken on behalf of DEFRA and Natural England (available via
www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/es/es-report.pdf). According to British Wildlife magazine, the review revealed that many farmers entering into ELS chose a few simple options that involved the least change to their management but offered the fewest wildlife benefits which was exactly our own conclusions in Worcestershire as far as hedgerows were concerned. The review also confirms that the HLS scheme is insufficiently funded to deliver the changes required to reverse the decline in farmland biodiversity. A situation likely to be worsened by recent increases in arable commodity prices which may mean that payment rates will be too low to compete. As a result of the review, a large number of changes are to be made to the operation of both ELS and HLS and we can only hope that this results in some overall improvement.
Next Sunday, 31st August sees our annual Brown Hairstreak Day starting at Grafton Flyford church at 11 a.m. followed by refreshments back in the village hall at lunchtime. Martyn Ganderton has been working on a video featuring Brown Hairstreaks which he hopes to be able to show on the day. Do come along if you can. Even if the weather is less than perfect there is always a reasonable chance of finding a Brown Hairstreak or two and the lunch is generally worth coming for on its own!
Mike Williams,
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion