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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Blackthorn Planting Day at Bourne Close, Flyford Flavell

Last winter, the “Thursday Streakers” had been asked by Wychavon District Council to come and survey for Brown Hairstreak eggs on various pieces of open-space land, left over after recent housing developments. These areas of land are owned and managed by the council, and are protected from future development. As a number of them fall within the distribution area of the Brown Hairstreak, and contain blackthorn, then we were very interested to get involved. One such area was at Bourne Close,...

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Hard work in Hertfordshire

Spent a soggy Sunday morning with Paul Why at Cole Green searching the Blackthorn for Brown Hairstreak eggs.  There is good quality Blackthorn at this site and it is next to Blackthorn Wood, Welwyn Garden City where several suspected sightings of adult BHs were reported last summer. No great surprise there as its15 years since the last confirmed sighting of BH at any stage of its lifecycle in Herts or Middx. But the reports from east Welwyn GC seem plausible and our search continues. Next hunt is on Panshanger Aerodrome, meet at 10 am in the car park on Monday 25 Feb, contact malcolmhull@ ntlworld.com for more informat...

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Egging at Ryton Pools Country Park

Its taken quite a while but finally the egg searching at Ryton Pools Country Park (RPCP) has been completed. Im pleased to report we have 111 eggs, with 5 just outside the park and another 2 on the very busy A445 (its always fun risking life and limb to search there!). Last year, we had about 70 in the park so its a good sign that we've beaten this, especially as 2012 wasn't a great year for our favourite Brownies. More searches are planned for the surrounding areas over the next couple of weeks, starting on Wednesday. Its now a bit of a race against time as the blossom buds are already threatening to burst! We held a blackthorn management meeting last Monday and now that the blackthorn distribution map has been completed (courtesy of Katie Brown), we have been able to work out some...

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