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West Williamston annual egg hunt
This year will be our twentieth transect count along the foreshore of this unique Brown Hairstreak site. The event is being held on Sunday 7th December - meet at 10.00am in the small park just west of the hamlet of West Williamston in South Pembrokeshire. Our lowest transect egg count was just 16 in 2002, and last year's count was 631 - a bumper year, so if you fancy coming along we would be very pleased to see you. If the weather looks fair for the afternoon we will continue...
Early egg hunts in Worcs
The Thursday Streakers have been out and about in recent weeks and have been finding reasonable numbers of eggs. The first real test, however, occurs at the end of the month when we carry out our first searches in and around Grafton Wood nature reserve where we have egg count data stretching back to 1970! We shall be meeting at Grafton Flyford church for 10 am on Saturday, 29th November (Grid Ref SO963557) and any Eggheads who fancy a day out in Worcs will be very welcome. Further details from Simon Primrose (simonjprimrose@aol.com) who has taken over from me as the West Midlands Butterfly Conservation Brown Hairstreak Species Champi...
West Williamston Egg Predation Survey . Week 8 - 30th September 2014
And
another unusual find ……….
With 212 eggs tagged over the last seven
weeks and another 30 eggs found by David Redhead and myself today,
the total number of eggs laid at this small survey site is now stands at 242.
Interestingly outside the fence, in the youngest Blackthorn, the latest newly laid eggs are mostly on the outer edge and have totalled 7, 6 and 9 found by me –
9 being the latest weekly figure. David Redhead,
on the other hand, has been counting inside...
West Williamston Egg Predation Survey . Week 7 - 23rd September
One Pale
Tussock and 212 tagged eggs.
26 more
eggs were found this week, exactly the same number as last week, and so the
grand total of tagged eggs now stands at 212.
Three of those eggs have been predated (or at least can’t be found!).
There are 2 sets of triplets and 15 doublets. No more doubles or trebles were found
this week, but the remains of one of the original 3 sets of triplets was found by way of a bit of dead twig lying on the ground, with
the...
West Williamston Egg Predation Survey – Week 6
26 more BH eggs were added this week, including one more doublet. This takes the egg total to 183 including 3 triplets and 16 doublets, with 3 predations - 186 tags in all.
Spiders have been more in evidence too....
Last blast at the Rifle Range?
On Saturday the 13th, I spent the day at Steyning with Richard Roebuck in the vain hope of a last flourish of betulae Unfortunately with a chilly north easterly breeze and broken cloud cover it proved difficult. After an hour we were rewarded with the appearance of a female in the reserve area. We lost sight of her completely and after half an hour decided to check the blackthorns by the entrance. There we found another female that had just finished laying. After managing a couple of...
West Williamston Egg Predation Survey – Week 5
The total number of eggs found to date in this small sample survey site is now 157
23 new
eggs were found last week, and were tagged and added to the overall egg total.There have been 2 egg predations and possibly 2 more. This will be confirmed next week – with no
egg remnants to be found it makes sense
to wait and compare these results with next weeks count. No more doubles or trebles were found this so week the overall count of 3 sets of triplets and 15 doublets remains. ...
Brown hairstreak pin badges
I am receiving reports from hairstreakers across the country of an emergence of brown hairstreaks via the Royal Mail.
Well yes, they arrived a couple of days early so I sent them out Thursday.
As of Tuesday the 23rd of September all have now sold..
...
West Williamston Egg Predation Survey – Week 4
A glorious
morning, but where were the females?
David Redhead had already seen a female before my arrival at 10.00am. With a mild east wind and glorious blue sky
we felt sure that there would be egg laying around us in abundance. It was not to be and they were all elsewhere(see
below).
Count details are as follows
Outside the fence I had 11 new
eggs including 1 set of triplets. 54 eggs were re-found including 8 sets
of twins and one set of triplets, with 1 predation. ...
Grafton Wood Open Day Success!
Grafton Wood in Worcestershire was THE place to be on Sunday 24th August. It was a beautiful, warm sunny morning which meant the Brownies were bound to be flying! As car after car pulled up in the carpark, Paul Fosterjohn's hugely popular Brown Hairstreak pin badges went flying off the table I'd set up, especially after I'd convinced everyone that wearing one would guarantee multiple sightings! 22 sold in 30 minutes, with the final 3 snapped up during the walk - this has got to be the most popular...
Life size brown hairstreak pin badge
Yes, folks your eyes did not deceive you a life size pin badge of the brown hairstreak is in production will be delivered to me on the 12th of September. Limited to 40 pieces and based on a photo taken at Steyning in August. The pin badge is of the underside of our favourite species in all its golden glory. The price including postage is £6.20
It will be presented on a backing card with another photo taken at Steyning two weeks later and have orange text.
These will very likely...
West Williamston egg predation survey – week 3
What a difference a week makes!
There are now 104 eggs, and to date no predations.
On Tuesday I took 61 pale green lengths of wool with me to
our study area (roughly 20m x 10m in size) and left with just 3. Further additions had also made that day by
David Redhead making this a very good count for a relatively small area.
Part of the reason for this may be that a nearby stand of Blackthorn has
been recently removed as part of the ongoing BH habitat management.
And...
West Williamston salt marsh habitat
The
Brown Hairstreak butterfly shown here was photographed on Tuesday down on the
foreshore of the reserve – part of what makes West Williamston rather
unique. These grasses, Sea Beet, Orache
and other saltmarsh plants are all covered by salt water when the tides are at
their highest.
Strange
but true - several of the lowest laid eggs can be found in winter covered in
seaweed washed up by storms.
Nikki
Anders...
West Williamston Egg Predation Survey
Week
2. - Week ending 19 August
2014
On Sunday 17th August David Redhead located all 11
tagged eggs and added a further 20 eggs to the count, tagged this time with
white wool.
Out of these 31 eggs he recorded 5 sets of doublets – a high proportion
of twins in a relatively small area.
Many of the BH adults recorded so far this year were in trees on the
right of this photograph. The brown area visible below the Ash was
the site of a large stand...
West Williamston Egg Predation Survey
West Williamston egg predation survey - Week
1
There has
been some anecdotal evidence at West Williamston that early laid BH eggs may be more
liable to predation than those laid later in September. The eggs were not tagged.After the first eggs of 2014 were
found by David Redhead we have established a small survey site in the top field (near the small car park) adjacent to the north side Ash trees nos 1 - 3. On Sunday 10th August a total of 11
eggs were found...
It's behind you
It pays off to stand back and watch the action unfold when searching for the Brown Hairstreak and as Neil pointed out on Saturday we had some superb action at the Rifle Range. Whilst Neil and a group were watching a female move out of a thicket to a better vantage point both Susie Millbank and I noticed another female descend from the ash tree behind them..
Whilst a throng followed Neil to photograph the one he was watching, I went to a dense thicket where a female was now hiding.
A couple...
Crowd Pleasers
As I was passing close to Steyning Rifle Range this
morning I couldn't resist another visit, despite the fact that the cloudy spells
outweighed the sunshine. There was quite a crowd already on site and a very
faded male had been seen on the ground earlier.
After chatting to a few regulars
in the reserve area I headed up towards the northern flank with Susie Milbank,
speculating that it was probably not quite sunny enough to bring many Brown
Hairstreaks out to play. As I got to the top...
The Ash Brownie pin badge unveiled
I will be sending out all pre-sale pin badges over the weekend so keep an eye on your post for them to arrive.
I hope that everyone who purchased one enjoys wearing it and for those who are yet to buy one this weekend don't miss out....
Bank Holiday Brownie Events in Worcs
What better way to spend your Bank Holiday time off work! The following 2 events will be taking place this Sunday and Monday in Worcestershire and are not to be missed!
SUN 24TH AUG - BROWN HAIRSTREAK OPEN DAY, GRAFTON WOOD
By far, this is the best opportunity to see this elusive species as there will be lots of pairs of eyes looking!
I will be there selling the last 25 limited edition Brown Hairstreak pin badges (more info here, and see the badge design above). They will be sold at a special...
Wednesday 20th August - A second try at Grafton.
This being the second Wednesday that I had booked off work
and with my lack of success in seeing any Brown Hairstreaks at Grafton Wood
last week I decided to have another attempt today.
I left home about 10.00 and drove over, arriving and parking
by the church at Grafton Flyford about an hour later. The morning had started
off nice and sunny albeit with a bit of a nip in the air after a cold night,
and by the time I arrived at Grafton some more cloud had built up with the
sunny spells...
More Steyning Brownies
Returns at Steyning Rifle Range were rather modest today, with only 5 females seen by the numerous visitors. The first was seen at 11.35 am and another 3 descended before 12.30 pm, at which point large banks of cloud appeared and the temperature plummeted. One more dropped into the thorn very briefly before close of play was announced soon after 1.00 p...
End of Season Steyning Downland Scheme Brown Hairstreak Social Group
Today I joined the ‘End of Season Steyning Downland Scheme Brown Hairstreak
Social Group’ at the Rifle Range, where annual gatherings celebrate the passing
of another season and members hope to photograph one of our most beautiful and
charismatic butterflies.
Brown Hairstreak watching here is very much a social
event and the more eyes the better! Although it sometimes gets so busy that you
will find yourself shoulder-to-shoulder with other participants, business...
Alners Gorse Females - 13/08/14
Having booked a week away in Dorset during Brownie season, how could i miss the opportunity to visit Alners Gorse for the first time? Unfortunately, the weather in Dorset this week has been pretty bad with torrential downpours and thunderstorms that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Thank goodness i took my waterproofs! With the intention of targeting female Brownie hunting (and a nice morning lie-in), Simon Primrose, Geoff Thompson and I arrived at around 11am and were immediately caught in a wonderful...
Late start at the rifle range pays off
After a ridiculously late start by anyone's standards, I arrived at Steyning at 1pm today. I expected there to by a large number of fellow brown hairstreakers to be on site but to my amazement there were only five others. In the Sussex contingent were Katrina Watson, Trevor Rapley and myself. There were a couple on holiday from the north of England intent on finding some Ash Brownie action too.
I made my way up to the top slope after exchanging form notes with Trevor and Katrina who between...
