Rushbeds Wood Egg Search

Dave Wilton led our latest organised UTB egg search at Rushbeds Wood here in Bucks yesterday Sunday 15th Dec 2013. This is a well established site and with its adjacent Laplands Farm reserve holds a strong colony of BrH. A team of 12 tackled an approximate 400 yards of hedgerow locating 75 eggs in 90 minutes. Dave felt this result was 'about average' for the location over recent years. This successful count contrasts with my difficulty in locating adults here in 2013 - both on several...

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First 2013 Sussex Eggs

This afternoon (3rd December) I went walking on the downs around Chanctonbury Ring, parking at Washington and walking up through the disused chalk pits. The briefest of searches located my first Brown Hairstreak eggs of the winter, only a couple of hundred metres from the car park. I've always found them here in previous years, but it usually requires some effort to locate just one or two. Today I found 7 in under five minutes, including 2 pairs. It's too early to draw any conclusions yet, but this does look quite promising for a good 2013 crop.After reaching the Ring I soon found my target for the afternoon, a handsome Great Grey Shri...

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So far so good

Interesting to read Tom's posting of record numbers of eggs at one of the Upper Thames sites.  Can't claim any record from our egg count at Grafton Wood on 17th November but numbers were up on the previous year on all three sections of blackthorn that make up part of our core count area which is an encouraging start.  We also seem to be getting a lot of multiple egg clusters this year for some reason with several trebles and even a couple of quads already recorded!  Our next planned session at Grafton is our Xmas/New Year special on Sun, 29th December when mincepies and mulled wine will be on offer as well as Brown Hairstreak eggs.  We meet outside Grafton Church for 10 am and all are very welcome.  In the meantime, the...

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Record egg numbers today in Upper Thames!

A team of eight members recorded a total of 81 BrH eggs in just over 2 hours at a regular site near the Oxford bypass today.  It was a site record, the previous highest total being the 54 found there in 2009. It will be interesting to see if other egg counts have similar results? Tetrad results this autumn (where at least one egg has been recorded) is almost complete for the 116 tetrads where either eggs or adults have been located since 2009. Egg finds have been relatively easy despite leaf fall being late this year. Dave Wilton is doing an excellent job as BrH Champion in co-ordinating the recording and mapping of the species in Bucks and Oxfordshi...

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Positive early news from Worcs

Although it is early days, we seem to be finding plenty of eggs in Worcs this year and, where we have comparative data, counts are up.  We have already added 3 new 1km squares to our distribution map which is also encouraging.  We shall know better after this coming weekend when we undertake our first egg hunt at Grafton Wood.  If any Streakers from elsewhere want to join us, we meet at Grafton Flyford church at 10 am on Sun 17th November (the day after the national AGM...

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egg searching methodology

Did anything ever come out of the egg-survey methodology meeting earlier in the yea...

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Very late tatty sighting

I spent five successive but unsuccessful days at Bookham Commons mid-August looking for brown hairstreaks. (OK, I did see male and female through binos up a sycamore). I then went to the French Alps for three weeks. On my return, I had given up the possibility of seeing one. Then, on 7 Oct at 2.45pm, a dull day, while looking for speckled woods (or anything), I was surprised when something brown fluttered by. Brown hairstreak didn't even enter my thoughts. Small copper or moth maybe? Well,...

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Shop early for Xmas

    Be the first to order the new West Midlands Butterfly Conservation calendar which is hot off the press.  In A4 landscape format in full colour, the calendar features all the winners in this year's West Midlands branch photographic competition.  The calendar is priced at £8 (£15 for two) and can be ordered from 8 Working Lane, Gretton, Cheltenham, Glos GL54 5YU.  Cheques should be made out to Butterfly Conservation West Midlands branch.  Copies can also...

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Last Of The Season?

While at Beeding Cement Works (near Shoreham) on Friday 27th September, along with a small crowd which had gathered to watch a Long-tailed Blue, Pete Varkala spotted a female Brown Hairstreak. With most eyes now watching out for rare, late season migrants, she might be the last seen in Sussex this ye...

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Noar Hill

Unfortunately I haven't seen BH this year but I thought I might get my last chance today. There have been reports of reasonable numbers from Noar Hill in Hampshire in the last couple of weeks and the forecast for this morning was not bad. I set off about nine thirty but during the course of my half hour journey the cloud came over ensuring that adults were off the menu. So I decided an egg hunt was in order.  In the last couple of years my success at Noar Hill has been variable including last year when I found none at all in two visits. However this time was much better finding 42 in about two hours searching from all over the site plus five old egg shells from this years hatch. A good number 10+  were outside the reserve itself along the lane to the north but it was...

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Hairstreak Butterfly Trail

The Brown Hairstreak in Worcs now has its own waymarked trail thanks to a partnership between Worcestershire County Council's Countryside Service and West Midlands Butterfly Conservation.  The 6.5 mile walk starts at Grafton Flyford church, passes through Grafton Wood and takes in part of the long distance Wychavon Way before returning to Grafton Flyford via Earl's Common and Himbleton.  The route passes through some very attractive Worcestershire countryside with distant views of Bredon...

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Doings at Shipton Bellinger

Shipton Bellinger Roughs consists of a large area of mixed scrub, with a high sloe content, rough grazing and arable fields on chalk and Clay-with-Flints near Tidworth on the Hants / Wilts border.  It is MOD land, part of Salisbury Plain Training Area but outside the red flag area.  It is criss-crossed by rights of way and is well used by locals.  There is a scatter of prominent ash trees along the scrub edge, and a 200m row of tall ash along an old lane between two rough grazing...

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Butterfly Visit to Ireland 17th to 26th August 2013

Brown Hairstreak Visits to a wide range of butterfly sites across the isle included four with specific Brown Hairstreak targets where success was achieved. The BrH stronghold is in the west - counties Clare, Galway and the most easterly location across the Shannon in Tipperary. Dromore Nature Reserve and Gortlecka are two known BrH sites. Dromore NR  is a well-managed lakeside habitat of suitable blackthorn, ash and nectar sources on the edge of Dromore Wood. We were fortunate to locate one female briefly showing itself at ground level before disappearing into the hedgerow. Gortlecka is typical Burren location on limestone pavement. The literature states that BrH behaviour here is not similar to their UK cousins in that sightings of males are more frequently...

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First Of The Month

Having seen a couple of Brown Hairstreak in perfect condition yesterday, I couldn't resist another bash at Steyning Rifle Range this morning (1st September). The weather was much better than forecast and I was surprised to have the place to myself, with the exception of BC Sussex member Leigh Prevost. Two visitors from Rochester appeared later in the day, just in time for Leigh to locate a Brownie for them; their first ever! Of the 7 females I saw at close range, 4 were in very good condition,...

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Hairstreaks Making Hay

Visitor numbers are now decreasing at Steyning Rifle Range, but not the number of Brown Hairstreaks on view. Nine females were active this morning (31st August) in the warm harvest sunshine, including two which remained just above head-height. Both of these were in perfect condition and probably haven't started egg-laying yet. The others varied in condition, from battered to quite reasonable, with the specimen below being at the better end of the sca...

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A Brown Letter Day!

Having never seen Brown Hairstreak before, and being inspired by reading the Ash Brownies Blog all summer, I (Paul Brewster) and my wife Carys decided that when news of emergence came through we would attempt to catch up with this enigmatic species. Once Gill had posted that emergence was underway at Grafton Wood, Worcestershire, we started to plan, but just at that time the good weather and our days off started to go out of sync. I emailed Gill whose response was fantastic, providing me with lots...

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Only here for the beer

August Bank Holiday Monday saw the local Worcs Streakers manning an information stall at the Pershore Plum Fayre.  This was our second visit to this event which celebrates Pershore and the surrounding area's historical and cultural links with all things plummy.  We reckon the Brown Hairstreak qualifies because of its associations with various members of the Plum family and, in any event, it is a great opportunity to raise awareness of one of our plummiest butterflies with the wider...

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Hairstreak Peak

The Brown Hairstreak now appears to be at peak in Sussex, based on results at the well-watched Steyning Rifle Range site. Large numbers of hairstreak fans continue to visit and yesterday (28th August) saw about half a dozen females at work in the blackthorn, with nearly as many staying up high. Some of the females are still in surprisingly good condition. The butterfly was very obliging (unlike the previous day), so everyone went away with some pleasing images. Sometimes it's nice to find peace...

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Grafton Wood Brown Hairstreak Open Day

Sunday 25th August saw the most anticipated, exciting day of the year for Grafton Wood  - the annual Brown Hairstreak Open Day! As I looked out of my window first thing on Sunday morning, I groaned....breezy and heavily overcast. However, the forecast promised better weather for the afternoon so my spirits were reasonably high as I drove over to Worcestershire. And when I arrived at Grafton church hall car park, 45 minutes before the scheduled start, there was already a reasonable (and expectant)...

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More To Come

Steyning Rifle Range continues to draw more Hairstreak-hunters than Hairstreaks at the moment, with the now standard 'half dozen' females being recorded yesterday (23rd August). The better news is that there are still mint condition specimens to be found, although many of those which have been out egg laying are already accumulating nicks and scratches. A pristine female hung from a bunch of ash keys in the largest Master Tree, just above head height, refusing to drop any lower until her eggs...

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Recent Worcestershire Highlights

There has been a wealth (and diversity) of Brown Hairstreak sightings in Worcestershire over the last 2 weeks, in what seems to be an exceptional year for this butterfly. I've attempted to summarise and diary everything I know about - as follows: Sat 10th Aug - I saw 2 Bramble nectaring males and one freshly emerged female on the main hedgerow to the west of Grafton Wood. One of these males was extremely obliging and I managed to take 314 photos of it. This despite inadvertently knocking it off...

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Brown Hairstreak Open Day

Attention everyone! Drop whatever you're planning to do on Sunday 25th August and come along to the annual Brown Hairstreak Open Day at Grafton Wood, Worcestershire! I have now seen just shy of 40 adults over 4 days on my 2013 Brownie Pilgrimage to Grafton which, for anyone unfamiliar with the butterfly, is an absolutely mind-blowing figure! Never before have so many adults been seen and there have been some fantastic photo opportunities for everyone who has visited. The first egg-laying females were seen on Tuesday so there is a good chance of seeing them on Sunday also, plus the chance to see one of the beautiful pinhead-sized "sea urchin" eggs up close. If you own a hand lens with good magnification (10x or more advised), do bring it along and you wont be disappointed! We will...

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Slow Going In Sussex

Brown Hairstreak numbers have been a little disappointing at Steyning Rifle Range this season, although I'm convinced the best is still to come, just in time for my guided walk on Sunday 25th August (see http://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/events.html). Only 5 were seen on Tuesday (20th August) and it took me until 2.45 pm yesterday to wring out 6 females, most of which had suffered significant damage despite their relative you...

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Doings in North Wilts

On Sun 18th I carried out my customary systematic search along some hedge lengths of the Wilts Wildlife Trust hay meadow reserve system near Minety, north west of Swindon.  I try to do this on a couple of early mornings in each flight season.  In effect it's a Brown Hairstreak transect, conducted in suitable weather as the butterfly is approaching peak season, with the males fully active.  Whether the data actually mean anything is, of course, another matter.  This Sunday the butterflies seemed to be in catch-up mode, after losing a day to poor weather on the Saturday.  Last year my highest tally was eight, achieved on two separate occasions.  Only the most favoured ash trees (which I call primary trees) were occupied then.  This Sunday my...

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Goings On In Upper Thames

Hi All Are many of you like me suffering a first sports injury? It's 'Arboreal butterfly neck' and indeed goes with the territory following an amazing Purple Emperor flight season surpassed by a sumglorious if late start, to the Brown hairstreak ash-party. My BrH recording had a wonderful kick-off on the 8th of August with my first sighting being a pair in cop high on a regularly visit ash assembly tree here in Bucks. A singleton male at site B was the prelude to a further pair in cop high on another annually visited assembly tree at site C, a 3 minute's drive away. B and C were just over the border in Oxfordshire. Many Ash Brownies may be familiar with the excellent piece of work carried out my Andrew Middleton, Liz Goodyear et al on 'Territorial Activity of Brown Hairstreak,...

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Unusual Sightings

These Brown Hairstreaks certainly get around. It is often said that looking for Brown Hairstreaks is like waiting for a bus with nothing much happening for several hours then two turning up at once. Redditch Council has now gone one step further by providing the Brown Hairstreak with its own bus shelter (photo courtesy of Wayne Beard, Redditch Borough Council). This rather fetching mural has been provided for the bus travellers of Winyates Green on the outskirts of Redditch and was produced...

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Emergence well underway at Grafton Wood

The last two days has seen a flurry of Brownie sightings at Grafton Wood in Worcestershire. These sightings are the first to be recorded since the initial one on Sunday 28th July. Yesterday yielded a minimum of 4 separate adults/sightings, at least 3 of which were male with the sex of the 4th undetermined. Today I had 8 separate sightings at different places spread across the 4 hours that I was there. All the butterflies I was able to observe closely were male. However, I bumped into John Tilt...

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Sussex Off The Mark

The Brown Hairstreak season is now underway in Sussex, with sightings of both male and female butterflies. Knepp Castle Estate produced the first, beating bookies' favourite Steyning Rifle Range to the off. The latter came back strongly, with good views of two fillies yesterday morning (4th August). One female was followed for more than 20 minutes, during which time there was no attempt at egging. I suspect she had just emerged. Even if she has already been mated, it might well be...

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Another Worcestershire Sighting

Following on from Sunday's report of an adult Brownie being seen at Grafton Wood, a second Worcs sighting was confirmed yesterday afternoon. This time it was in a village, a few miles to the north of Grafton Wood. It was confirmed as a male and it was seen in a known and long-standing assembly tree. As this tree resides in the garden of a very keen (and very lucky) Brownhairstreaker, it is the most closely monitored of all assembly trees in Worcs and almost every year, naturally enough, gives rise to the first confirmed Brownie sighting in the count...

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Grafton Wood Emergence Is Underway

Amid reports of the Dorset Brown Hairstreak's beginning to emerge a few days ago, i received confirmation today from West Midlands Brown Hairstreak champion, Mike Williams, that a female was seen at Grafton Wood this morning! It will soon be time for some of this behaviour! ...

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Brownie Beer Is Here!

As advertised in the Summer 2013 edition of Butterfly magazine, a new range of butterfly beers is now available from the wildlife-inspired beer specialists, From The Notebook Ltd. Founders Colin Bowler and Graeme Denton have created a range that consists of 4 different beers, including Red Admiral Ruby Ale, Orange-tip Amber Ale, Gatekeeper Best Bitter and our favourite - Brown Hairstreak Tawny Ale! The first 3 are available to buy now at £2.55 per bottle, with the Brown Hairstreak ale following...

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Brown Hairstreak Emergence Begins!

We've been waiting all year for this and now its finally arrived - the 2013 Brown Hairstreak emergence has begun! Our very own CEO of Butterfly Conservation, Martin Warren, reported on Twitter that adults were seen on his transect walk at Alner's Gorse in Dorset - 1 on 24th July and another on 26th. It looks like things have finally caught up, thanks to the hot weather! If you've seen a Brown Hairstreak, please get in touch (ashbrowniesblog@gmail.com) and/or sign up to the blog to post your sightings and photographs. Click here for more information...

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Turning to Jelly

The emergence of the first hatchlings of the spring was celebrated in style in Worcestershire with the launch of the world's first Hairstreak Jelly.  I perhaps quickly need to add that no Brown Hairstreaks were harmed in the making of this product.  Hairstreak Jelly is in fact a very delicious jam made out of sloes picked by volunteers from West Midlands Butterfly Conservation and we hope a rather novel way of getting across to the wider community the importance of not cutting hedges...

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Streaking with a flourish!

We had decided that Thursday 11th April would mark the end of the 2012/2013 Streakers Club egging season (although not, I hasten to add, the end of this winter's egg searching altogether - not just yet!). We weren't too sure though where to go searching.....before we retired to the pub for an end-of-season lunch and the chance to catch up with Mike Williams' photos from his recent Madagascar butterfly trip! We had finished the 'wider Grafton Wood' search a couple of weeks previously - and recorded...

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More streaking adventures in Worcs

With the egging season drawing to an end (although no doubt a few more adventures yet to experience), I thought it might be a good time to provide an update.  The Thursday Streakers have continued to brave the cold and have been out looking for eggs.  The search for Brown Hairstreak eggs within 0.25 mile radius of Grafton Wood, referred to by Simon in an earlier posting, nears completion and is likely to top the 600 mark which is not bad going in what is clearly not been a...

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MORE EGGING AT KNEPP

On Friday (1st March) I continued my Brown Hairstreak egg surveys of the Knepp Castle Estate Wildland project area. The first three hours were hard going, with only a single find over a wide area, despite it being blessed with plenty of blackthorn. Although browsing pressure is undoubtedly high, this was well below expectations. A welcome relief from the growing boredom was provided by a pretty Drinker moth caterpillar, snuggled tight up against a blackthorn stem. It won't be long now before it...

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New Surveying Methodology In The Making

30+ people from all over the country attended the Brown Hairstreak Survey Methods Workshop in Ruishton, near Taunton on Saturday. The meeting kicked off at 10:30am with an informative and entertaining talk by Matthew Oates on Brown Hairstreak ecology. Mike Williams (West Midlands) followed on with an equally fascinating presentation on the Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire. West Midlands branch were the first to begin wider-scale research on assembly ash trees so these findings went down very well,...

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Brown Hairstreak Conservation Day

Our annual Brown Hairstreak Conservation Day was held on Sunday 17th February at Ryton Pools Country Park, Warwickshire. Surveying at the park only began last year so you can imagine how surprised (and delighted) we were to find 70 eggs, including many more in our adjoining Butterfly Conservation reserve, Ryton Wood Meadows. This year, the count has increased to 118 eggs, leading to immediate talks for future long-term blackthorn management. For 2013 though, our main priority is the habitat in closest...

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Egging in a Blizzard - Not Advisable!

After arranging an egg search on private land near our main Brown Hairstreak colony at Ryton Pools Country Park, Warwickshire on 13th February, it seemed a shame to cancel the visit due to the snow and freezing cold conditions. The snow had finally started to disappear underfoot and more wasn't forecast until 3pm that afternoon so we thought we'd get away with it. Not likely! A light dusting had already started to come down before we'd even arrived but by the time we pulled up, it had stopped altogether....

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Brown Hairstreak Survey Methods Workshop

For anyone interested in the Brown Hairstreak, there is a national survey methods workshop at Ruishton Village Hall near Taunton, Somerset on Saturday 23rd February 10:00-15:00. The aim of the workshop is to devlop and test a new method for surveying Brown Hairstreak abundance through egg counts. It is hoped that this will become the standard method so that egg counts can increasingly be used to report on the species national population status through the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). Currently, only adult counts from transects (usually of very low numbers) are used in the UKBMS. The workshop is open to anyone who wants to learn more about Brown Hairstreak egg count methods or wishes to help shape method development. The day will comprise of a series of presentations on...

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