BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
August 2010
Dear Brownhairstreakers,
Could it really rain for the third year running at the Brown Hairstreak open
day? Oh yes, it certainly could. Actually, compared to the previous two years,
the weather was marginally better but, unfortunately, generally cloudy and on
the chilly side. Nevertheless, a group of around 30 people gathered at the Village
Hall for 10 am and we set off towards Grafton Wood. Having unsuccessfully looked
for butterflies at the assembly tree halfway to the wood, we split into two
groups with John Tilt, along with Martyn Ganderton and Hugh Glennie, taking
a party down to the south end and another group following Trevor Bucknall, Peter
Seal and myself into the orchard. Neither group had any initial luck and when
we met up at the main cross roads two hours later (!) there had been no definite
Brown Hairstreak sighting and we felt the first spots of rain; making us feel
that whoever was in charge of the weather on Sunday was certainly not a Brown
Hairstreak fan! It looked as if, for the third year, that the nearest we were
going to get to a good view of a Brown Hairstreak was showing people eggs. At
this point, John's group went on down to the orchard while I headed out towards
the eastern side of the wood. Rather typical of the weather of late what looked
like rain one moment suddenly turned into about 20 minutes of sunshine and with
the change in the weather came a change in our fortunes with the first Brown
Hairstreak spotted by Jim Cresswell halfway up an oak tree. A female well above
head height but it showed very well with its wings open and one member of the
group even managed a couple of photos. It soon flew off, however, into the canopy
and was not seen again. An advance party under Trevor's guidance had walked
on and had started to explore a hedge leading away from the wood and, at the
point I caught up with them, had not seen any Hairstreaks. By now, it was getting
on for lunchtime and, deciding to turn back to return to the village hall, a
member of the group suddenly spotted a female low down on the hedgerow which
everyone must have walked past a few minutes earlier! This proved a more co-operative
individual and allowed itself to be photographed from all conceivable angles
before eventually being netted by Trevor and carried in triumph back to the
village hall for all to see. This proved a good move as John's group had not
had any luck on their return walk and it meant, at least, that everyone could
return home having seen a Brown Hairstreak. There was a price to pay, however,
for our eventual good fortune as returning across the fields we suddenly found
ourselves in the middle of a hailstorm and we all got well and truly soaked.
After lunch, Exhibit A (or maybe H?) was released outside the hall and, after
posing on my hand for more photos, decided enough was enough and flew off. So
all in all a satisfactory morning but in many respects a classic Brown Hairstreak
day.
What was particularly frustrating about Sunday was that the days
leading up to the event had seen some decent weather and there had been some
good sightings of Brown Hairstreaks. Males have continued to be in evidence
around their assembly trees, with Martyn Ganderton showing a photograph of a
male taken at Stock Green the previous day and Hugh Glennie reporting still
3 males at Cowsden on 24th. Further activity has been reported from the tree
at Naunton Court and it is looking more likely that this is being used as an
assembly tree with Hugh and Peter Seal seeing a female there on 15th August.
The discovery of this tree has produced welcome publicity in the Worcester
Evening News which in turn has generated a number of new adult records.
Generally, we tend to get few reports of Brown Hairstreaks away from their core
sites and it is great when people can be encouraged to explore new areas. Ben
Cooke recorded a female at the Wildlife Trust reserve at Humpy Meadow near Kington
while Tony Murphy rang me to say he saw two in a field near Stock Green on 30th
August. Perhaps the most interesting report of the season so far, however, and
evidence of continuing expansion on the part of the Brown Hairstreak, is of
a female seen in a garden just north of Alcester in Warks. A few years ago,
we recorded an egg just over the county boundary north of Church Lench but this
is the first adult sighting reported and from a rather different area. This
new record is around 3 km east of the nearest known location in Worcs and opens
up a new area of search for eggs over the winter. The county boundary to the
east of Cookhill is well wooded and may well prove productive.
As expected, there have been increasing numbers of reports of females
being seen egglaying and this will be a trend which should continue over the
next few weeks especially if the weather remains reasonable. Males will quickly
become things of the past with no sightings at the Cowsden tree this morning
despite excellent weather but something else to look out for is sightings of
nectaring Brown Hairstreaks. This is a butterfly, in common with other Hairstreaks,
which generally does not frequent flowers and the attached photograph taken
by Ben Cooke of a female on hemp agrimony is fairly unusual certainly in Worcs.
Interestingly, there have been other reports from elsewhere in the UK of Brown
Hairstreaks visiting various wildflowers this year which may indicate a shortage
of honeydew on the treetops. Tony Moore reported via the West
Midlands butterfly discussion group that he had seen Brown Hairstreaks visiting
bramble on the Butterfly Conservation reserve at Alners Gorse in Dorset, while
our colleagues in the Upper Thames branch of Butterfly Conservation have had
a number of sightings on thistles. The individual Ben photographed was clearly
a thirsty girl as she continued nectaring for at least 30 minutes before flying
off. Apparently, it was joined at one point by both Brown Argus and Silver-washed
Fritillary which must have been quite a sight.
Look forward to hearing more Brown Hairstreak news over the coming
weeks. A couple of people have been in contact so far about the possible egg
foray to Hungary next year mentioned in the last ebulletin but there are still
places available if others are interested. We may put the date back slightly
to late March when there may be the first Camberwell Beauties emerging from
hibernation as a bonus but no promises!
Mike Williams,
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion,
West Midlands Butterfly Conservation