Another late Brown Hairstreak sighting in S W Wales......further to Thursday's post, yesterday, I came across another female (in fairly fresh condition) flying below us on a habitat hotspot in Cwm Hiraeth, near Newcastle Emlyn in NW Carmasrthenshire - Teifi valley, where the species still thrives, largely due to high concentration of small holdings and low penetration of modern agriculture. Anyone, who can contribute to other request on Thursday re growing blackthorn from seed, please share with ...

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Whilst working out a coppicing plan, I disturbed a Brown Hairstreak this afternoon in a deep valley in a field of one of our few remaining southern Carmarthenshire sites. We've apparently gone from 56 sites in 2006 within 15kms of Carmarthen, down to just 6 still occupied. This includes one large site, part of which we manage. On a related matter, although coppicing to regenerate via suckering is our main tool, the owner of one of the managed sites also wants to grow his own Blackthorn from seed (sloes) in his own tree nursery, so that they can be planted out into new hedges, and is asking for any tips on germination, growing etc. Does anyone have or can point me to suitable experience/advice please. Thanks...

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GRAFTON BROWN HAIRSTREAKS STILL GOING STRONG

I visited Grafton Wood yesterday for the first time since the cloudy, and hence somewhat disappointing, Open Day eight days ago. However it was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and I was rewarded with five sightings of separate female Brownies. It was fairly chilly when I first arrived in the wood at 10:30, even though it was sunny, but it gradually warmed up and about an hour later I had my first sightings of two females in a large overgrown hedgerow, to the north of the main pond. Half an hour...

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Blasted to Kingdom Come...

The Gloucestershire - Wiltshire border suffers from a foul and abusive climate... The sun reappeared on Friday August 28th, after several days of wind and rain.  I went out streaking, of course, but struggled to see a single battered male before cloud billowed up around 10.30.  My guess is that the males have been blasted away here, though there certainly should be egging females lingering on.   The North Wilts flight season seems to end early - the butterflies are usually gone by the end of the first week of September, after starting circa 26th July (25th July this year).  Males disappear around 20th August leaving a tail of females.   The brevity of the flight season here may have something to do with habitual foul and abusive weather during August... Had...

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Weather-beaten but undeterred

After a highly promising start to the season, Pembrokeshire Brownies have been battered by nine successive days of storms, wind and rain. Saturday 29th August provided a short window for any remaining betulae to get down to business again, but in a four hour visit between 10am and 2pm, I only managed to find one solitary female doing so, although she did provide a fascinating 20 minute tutorial regarding behaviour. Previously, I'd only ever seen females lay eggs in isolation, but this one laid...

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The big descent has started out west

15th August 2015 On day one of the Hairstreak Weekend at the West Williamston WTSWW Reserve in Pembrokeshire 27 Brown Hairstreaks were observed - a record for the site in one day - we see Matthew's 76 as a challenge for the 2016 event. Our 27 were also mainly males spread across two sets of ashes and an isolated ash but 5 were low level females of which 3 were observed egg laying. After they had disappeared 15 bright white shiners were discovered including one triplet and one doublet. One...

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11th August - Grafton Wood

Apologies for the lateness of this! Had a successful day at Grafton Wood on 11th with Simon Primrose and Richard Smyth. 4 different Brown Hairstreak (3 male, 1 female), all in different areas of the wood (one of these seen by John Tilt). 3 Small Copper, Purple Hairstreak, Brimstone, Painted Lady, multiple Silver-washed Fritillary, Common Blue and the usual suspects - Peacock, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Ringlet, Small White, Large White, Green-veined White. Also found a poor White-letter Hairstreak...

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Sussex Off, But Slow Start

The Brown Hairstreak season in Sussex is now fully underway, but we are still in the very early stages, as the butterfly calendar continues to run late. The best Sussex sites have always been very poor at providing low-level males, although they make amends by producing such high numbers of obliging females. After getting a nice male at Cissbury Ring (8 August) I was even more pleased to get my best ever shot of a male at Steyning on Wednesday afternoon (12 August, top left), when the clouds suddenly...

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Brother Betulae Erupts!

This morning I counted 76, repeat 76, Brown Hairstreaks in 2 hrs 15 mins, of which about 30 mins were too cloudy for flight, at Shipton Bellinger on the Hants - Wilts border.  I kicked off with 34 in 37 mins, but would have done better had I arrived 30 mins earlier (I got there at 8.50).  Nearly all were males, in varying condition but including a number that seemed freshly emerged.  I hit the last ball of my innings for 7 - the most I've ever seen together.   This is a personal...

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Another male nectaring at Grafton

It was a long wait, as the 2mph wind took four hours to bring in the first blue sky to Grafton Wood, on Aug 11th. Shortly afterwards, however, Gillian spotted a male nectaring, opposite the pond area, at around 3pm. Like Mike, I've observed that WLH and PH seem to be coming down to nectar much more frequently than usual, this year, although I have no idea why. There were three other sightings of males nectaring at various locations around the wood, mainly on hemp agrimony, on the day. Hopefully,...

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Waiting no longer

The first Brown Hairstreaks were seen at Grafton Wood last Thursday: a male and more surprisingly an egg-laying female.  Saw both White-letter Hairstreak and Purple Hairstreak the same day all three nectaring on hemp agrimony and in the case of the male Brown Hairstreak bramble.  Wondered if this might suggest a shortage of aphid honeydew this year.  What has been the experience elsewhe...

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Still waiting in Worcestershire

Although Brown Hairstreaks have already been reported further south we are still awaiting our first sighting in Worcs.  Made my first early morning visit to one of our known assembly trees yesterday but no success so did a Big Butterfly Count instead.  Over the last few years we have always seen our first Brown Hairstreak before the end of July but this year looks as if it is the exception.  It has been a decidedly odd season with a number of species on the late side and it is only now, for example, that Peacocks are beginning to be seen on a regular basis.  Anyway, hopefully not too much longer to wa...

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Eggs Now Hatching

I am fortunate enough to have three Brown Hairstreak eggs in my front hedge here in Crawley, West Sussex. All have survived predation and the first of them hatched this morning (15th April). The egg was south-facing and the larva was located making its way to the nearest leaves. The plant is Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) which has been in leaf for some weeks. I have also been monitoring eggs on nearby Blackthorn where the buds are now just breaking and found another hatched egg (also south-facing)....

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Tagged eggs warning

For the second time we have had tagged eggs removed from one of our Worc nature reserves presumably by a butterfly breeder/collector.  The incident happened at Trench Wood reserve where eggs had been marked ironically to ensure that they were not removed by accident as part of routine ride maintenance.  Over 20 eggs were taken, virtually every single egg laid at Trench Wood this winter!  This follows a similar incident at Grafton Wood back in 2010.  It is pretty appalling to think that there are unscrupulous individuals around that would take eggs from a nature reserve in this way but clearly there are and by publicising the incident we hope that similar incidents can be avoided.  For our own part at West Midlands Butterfly Conservation we shall not...

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Annual Transect egg count 6th December 2014

Eighteen wonderful volunteers turned up for the count, travelling from far and wide.  Thank you everyone for making such an effort. The count was low - given that the count the previous year was the highest ever with 651 eggs found on the day along the 500m foreshore transect. However, the bigger picture shows that 232 is the seventh highest number out of 20 counts, so pretty good overall. West Williamston SSSI Annual Brown Hairstreak...

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