BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
January 2009
Dear Brownhairstreakers,
Our bad luck with the weather this year continued when our first planned egg
hunt on 13th December had to be abandoned owing to torrential rain on the day.
It wasn't so much that it would have meant a soaking for those taking part,
but flooded roads meant that it would be have been extremely foolhardy for people
to attempt the journey in the first place. Fortunately, our second planned day
was blessed with near perfect conditions and a four hour stint by the five of
us in the orchard on the western side of Grafton Wood produced over 160 eggs.
Numbers overall were a little down on the previous year but, given all the difficulties
faced by the butterfly in 2008, which have been well documented in previous
ebulletins and will not be repeated here, perhaps not as bad as may have been
feared. We have one more planned egg hunt on Saturday, 24th January meeting
at Grafton Flyford Church for 10 am and, providing we get a decent turnout on
that day, we should hopefully complete the core area count. Those people who
have attended egg hunts before will know that, as well as counting eggs, we
also monitor the height at which they are laid and whether eggs are laid singly
or in groups of two or more. By far the majority of eggs in any year are laid
singly but, so far this year, we have found more multiple egg clusters than
usual including three "triples" which is interesting. No-one really knows what
prompts the female to lay more than one egg at a single location. Anyone who
has watched females egglaying will know how very fussy the butterfly is over
where it lays its eggs, often crawling over the blackthorn for some time before
eventually deciding to lay even a single egg. It is therefore very surprising
to come across these multiple eggs. My own "theory", and it is no more than
that, is that this phenomenon is perhaps more likely to occur on days of intermittant
or occasional sun where the female is even less active than normal (which is
saying something!) and, having located a suitable egg laying position, once
the sun re-emrges "forgets" she has already laid an egg and deposits further
eggs in the same place! It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has
actually witnessed multiple egglaying in the field to learn under what circumstances
it occurred. Other good news from our egg count is that Hedgerow A, which always
supports the highest egg numbers in our core area and which was flailed last
winter, again produced a good return. The hedgerow itself has only partly recovered
from the short back and sides treatment meted out last February and most of
the eggs found were on low sucker growth at the base of the hedge showing once
again how valuable this kind of habitat is to the Brown Hairstreak.
Creating and maintaining good habitat for the Brown Hairstreak
and other hedgerow species was the subject of a joint training day for farmers
and other landowners held at the end of November. Organised by Natural England,
in partnership with Butterfly Conservation, the day was divided between a morning
session in Bradley Green Village Hall and an afternoon visit to nearby Upper
Hollowfields Farm to look at the way that hedgerows were being managed and to
search for Brown Hairstreak eggs. The morning session included talks on the
ecology of the Brown Hairstreak from John Tilt, the Reserve Manager at Grafton
Wood nature reserve; information on managing farmland for butterflies from Jane
Ellis, Regional Officer for Butterfly Conservation; and perhaps, most importantly,
details of the various grants now available through the different Environmental
Stewardship schemes by Danny Newman from Natural England. The day was very well
attended and proved extremely successful with a number of subsequent enquiries
from farmers interested in applying for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) which,
as previously reported, is now available for the Forest of Feckenham area. Thanks
go to the speakers especially John Tilt, who stood in for me at short notice
when I managed to lose my voice the day before the event (!), Danny Newman who
shouldered the main organisational responsibility and the Terry family who hosted
the afternoon session at their farm. Amongst those outside the immediate area
attending the event was Richard Smith from Butterfly Conservation's South Wales
branch who has been developing conservation strategies for the Brown Hairstreak
in his own region for several years. Since November, Danny has been busy making
follow up visits to farms and a numbers of landowners have already managed to
locate Brown Hairstreak eggs on their land. A map showing the current known
distribution of the Brown Hairstreak can be found on the redesigned West Midlands
Butterfly Conservation website (www.westmidlands-butterflies.org.uk). Go to
the Species page and then click on Brown Hairstreak. Back copies of the Brown
Hairstreak ebulletin can also be accessed from the same page. Over the last
three years, we have almost trebled the known distribution of the butterfly
in winter almost entirely as a result of people going out during the winter
months in search of eggs. There are still plenty of blank squares on the map
which could hold Brown Hairstreaks so if you are willing to have a go at some
private egg hunting do let me know. Otherwise, I hope to see as many of you
as possible for the egg count on 24th January.
Happy Hairstreaking New Year.
Mike Williams,
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion