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BACK__________________________________________________________________________________________________
February 2011
Dear Brownhairstreakers,
After really struggling to turn up many new egg records this winter,
the last few weeks have proved surprisingly rewarding. For the last official
egg hunt of the season on 29th January, we took a bit of a flyer and headed
for Church Lench, a part of the county where we had never previously recorded
Brown Hairstreak eggs. With a good turnout of volunteers we were able to split
into two teams: the 'Malvernites' (Hugh Glennie, Peter Seal and Trevor Trueman)
and the 'Rest of the World' (Simon Primrose, Tony Simpson and myself). The Malvernites
kicked off at the Church Lench end while the Rest (of the world) took on Ab
Lench as their goal. Both teams quickly scored with the first egg just off the
lane midway between the two villages (SP0151) and the equaliser within minutes
virtually in the centre of Church Lench itself (SP0251). After a half-time team
talk to discuss tactics, the second half began with the Malvernites playing
away in SP0351, while the Rest tried to cover themselves in glory in Atch Lench.
The Malvernites appeared to have snatched a late winner with an egg close to
North Farm in their square only for the Rest, after a number of shots off target,
managing to prove that they were really Manchester United in disguise and grabbing
an injury time equaliser along the lane south of Church Lench (SP0250). With
the Malvernites off home for an early bath and Tony with family commitments,
Simon and myself headed over to Bishampton where we scored yet another new 1Km
square (SO9850) with an egg along the edge of Ian's Wood. This was a site that
Hugh had searched without success as recently as 2009 and will please the Vale
Landscape Heritage Trust who own the reserve and had originally asked us to
search for eggs there. So, all in all, a quite extraordinary and surprising
day with five new 1km square records in an area where previous experience had
suggested we would find it difficult to find any.
Encouraged by this success, Simon and myself, but particularly
Simon, have been out subsequently looking for further new squares with some
success. First up was SP0150 where Simon found an egg on one of the few public
footpaths passing through the square, then jointly on 2nd February we found
eggs above Bishampton golf course in SP0050 and in the square to the east of
Ian's Wood SO9950. Attempts to find eggs in any of the squares below the 50
line which would constitute brand new 10km squares for the Brown Hairstreak
have so far proved unsuccessful despite a couple of tries and finding some great
blackthorn in places. Fame but sadly not fortune still awaits the first person
to find an egg anywhere along the 49th parallel! Further west, Simon has also
been successful in finding eggs in SO9152 west of White Ladies Aston and also
the Churchill square to the north (SO9253). It is wrong, however, to give the
impression that eggs have been easy to come by and many of the new squares have
only been achieved through many hours of diligent searching. One of the problems
at this time of year, of course, is that hedges have been largely flailed and
in many cases it is very difficult to find any untrimmed blackthorn. A good
case in point was last week when Simon and myself, on this occasion joined by
Trevor Bucknall, trudged the footpaths around Bredicot exploring the currently
vacant squares to the south. Only one egg was found in around 5 hours of searching
and that was on a blackthorn in a ditch which had somehow escaped the flail.
Even worse, it was also by a matter of a few feet in an already recorded square!
This particular story did have a happy ending, however, as Trevor noticed some
uncut blackthorn on his journey home and returned the following morning to record
an egg in SO9055. Another square to the west and again we will be in a brand
new 10km square, so to the challenge of the 49th parallel we can now add the
89th! In less than 3 weeks, we have added 11 new 1km squares to the known range
of the Brown Hairstreak making 17 for the season and 178 squares in total extending
currently over 4 10km squares. This makes this winter the most productive for
finding new locations for the butterfly since the heady days of 2006/7 when
we added 24 squares and we may not be finished yet. If any local champions are
free next Thursday, 24th February we are hoping to carry out an assault on the
89th parallel and it would be good to have a few extra helpers. If you happen
to be free and would like to come along ring me on 07802 274552 for directions
as to where we plan to meet.
Interestingly, given the number of multiple egg clusters we found
in our core area search around Grafton Wood, all the recent new locations reported
above have been of single eggs. I also have to report that my claim that the
six egg cluster found on 15th January constituted a joint world record for egglaying
has been sadly dashed by Richard Smith from Butterfly Conservation's South Wales
branch who has directed me to his photograph in the Summer 2005 issue of "Butterfly"
of 7 eggs. I have looked very closely at this photo in the hope of being able
to rule it out on some technicality but have failed. Anyway, I still feel six
eggs is pretty impressive and so clearly did the "Worcester News" which ran
the story in their 27th January edition under the headline "Rare six-egg find
at nature reserve". Had thought Richard had perhaps lost his mojo but the latest
issue of the South Wales Brown Hairstreak newsletter MOJO (Monthly or just Occasionally)
was published recently and shows that it is not just in Worcs that the butterfly
has enjoyed a good season with some very good counts from most of their monitored
sites. Similarly, in the Upper Thames area, numbers seem to have been very high
and their distribution map shows the butterfly recorded in over 300 1km squares
and 11 10km squares so, on this basis, we have a long way to go in Worcs.
Most of the 1400 blackthorn plants obtained through our landfill grant from Severn Waste have now been planted on various farms around the Forest of Feckenham and I am grateful to Andrew Neil for his photo (see attached) of a newly planted hedge at Mearse Farm. Hopefully over time, all these hedges will mature into some good breeding habitat. We are grateful to all 12 local landowners who have taken blackthorn for planting.
The latest issue of "The Comma", newsletter of West Midlands Butterfly
Conservation, which has been recently published, has a number of articles of
Brown Hairstreak interest and even features a photo of three of our local champions
on the front cover admiring the egg found in December near the Warks border.
A couple of dates of Brown Hairstreak interest included in the newsletter are
this year's open day which, given our bad luck with weather over the past few
years, we have put back a week until Sunday, 4th September, while earlier in
the year a Brown Hairstreak caterpillar hunt is planned for Saturday, 21st May.
We have not looked for caterpillars for quite a while so thought we would have
another try. If you think finding eggs is hard enough try caterpillars! The
newsletter with further details of both these events can be downloaded from
the West Midlands BC website
Mike Williams,
Brown Hairstreak Species Champion,
West Midlands Butterfly Conservation