A not so Typical Day out

It’s Bank Holiday and Moor Green are playing an away match at Stafford Rangers. Unfortunately the game is to kick off at 3 o’clock and not the normal evening time. However, we still had the early part of the day to try and get some of those desperately needed Staffordshire butterfly records.

Just after 9 am we set off thinking it was a good omen when we were not held up on the M6! Using the map that Richard Southwell had kindly sent us we found our first tetrad and a handy lay-by to stop at. Our plan was that we would leave the car and then walk in opposite directions along the road meeting back at the car.. We didn’t get off to the best of starts as the only sighting of interest was a Devil’s Coach Horse beetle. Not put off by early failure we headed off again, looking for a turn that would take us to those lovely roads that are so narrow they aren’t allocated a number. Just as we reached a turn we saw our first butterfly - a white; jumping out to check it I found the local farmer was waiting behind us in his Land Rover (whoops). Eventually he realised that we were not going to move and went round us. The butterfly was still sitting where it had landed and a Green-veined White was the first record of the day in our first tetrad.

We continued down this single track road only to meet the same farmer on his way back, not wanting to upset him again we reversed to a gateway to let him pass - this time he smiled! At our next stop we found a Small White and a Vapourer moth. Further on we went through a corner of our second tetrad and managed to spot a Small White before entering the third.

This tetrad was an experience. We stopped seven times and got records each time, but how often on a single track road do you meet an fire engine with all lights blazing and siren sounding heading in the opposite direction. We’d heard the siren in the distance but never in a millennium did we expect it to be on the same road. I don’t think the car has ever been reversed so far or so fast but having a fire engine willing you to find a passing place does give some incentive for speed!

After recovering from that experience we managed to cover a few more tetrads without incident. We did wonder how many times we might have been reported to the local Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators because of our habit of looking into people’s gardens for those butterfly friendly plants - even reversing for a second look on occasions!

Around 1 o’clock the sky had got considerably cloudier and our targets much harder to find; we found a parking spot where we could have lunch opposite a field full of whites flying about. While munching we checked out the field and found that apart from one Green-veined and two Large Whites the rest were all Small Whites. By this time Alan wanted to start finding our way to Stafford so that he didn’t miss the start of the match. In spite of being slowed down by a farmer (twice), a fire engine, and numerous cyclists who turned up all along our route we’d managed to cover 17 tetrads.

Arriving at the football ground with 10 minutes to spare we parked in the adjacent industrial estate. Alan went off to the match just as the sun reappeared from behind the clouds. I decided to go exploring on foot round the industrial estate - I was amazed to come across a lovely nature reserve called Astonfields Balancing Reservoirs which was swarming with Speckled Wood butterflies. I also wandered along a couple of nearby roads checking out the gardens. Whilst doing this I came across another of those annoying little orange blurs known as the Vapourer moth; for the first time ever I found one sitting still on a wall so that I could have a good look at it and confirm for myself how colourful they are and make a positive identification.

As the match would soon be over I headed back to the car, on the way finding a Common Blue on a nearby cycle track in a remaining patch of sun. When Alan got back to the car he told me that he’d managed to get one record - a Small White surveying Stafford Rangers goal net - adding that it was never in any danger as Moors had only had one shot in the first half and that had hit the cross bar. However the result did go his way as his team scored in the second half for a 1-0 win and are now top of their league.

On our return journey the M6 was stop/start most of the way which made us late enough to miss the traffic from the Birmingham City match but the aptly named Small Heath Highway was closed for half its length by the Police (we do not think M. Slater was involved in any way!). Luckily Alan knew a better way round than the official diversion and we got back home reasonably quickly.

Recovering from our days adventures we couldn’t face cooking so we went out to our local Burger King to feed up so that we could collate our records and, knowing that Richard couldn’t wait to receive them, we put them in the post the next day. Although we did not manage to cover the full 35 tetrads

we were pleased with what we did achieve on such and adventurous day. Our sightings for the day were, Small and Large and Green Veined White, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Gate Keeper, Small Copper, and a Vapourer moth. According to Richard Southwell the Common Blue seen at the last minute was the first ever seen in that decad.

Val Weston and Alan Prior