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 us.

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.


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 or so later I bumped into Steve Williams and he told me he'd seen two females too, but in different locations to mine. We both went to investigate the area where he'd had his sightings and almost immediately found one of the females searching the blackthorn for suitable egg laying sites.
















After crawling up and down various tiny blackthorn stems, this one (presumably?!) seems to have
got confused and I watched it lay an egg on a Field Maple sucker!




Walking back towards the pond, Steve then spotted another female flying and basking on a different stretch of hedgerow. No more sightings at the pond, although I'd earlier met someone who'd seen a female in an Oak tree there first thing in the morning at around 9:30.

At about 2:15 Steve and I both decided to call it a day and walk back to the car park. However
on the way back, Steve pointed out the area where he'd had his first sighting of the day - on a hedgerow roughly halfway between the church car park and the wood. Believe it or not, within a few seconds there it was - flying out of the hedge and stopping to bask just in front of us.


This was the fifth separate female I'd seen on the day, and shortly afterwards I spoke to another guy who'd had a sighting of a female right in the middle of the wood. That one, together with the one seen early on near the pond, plus my five sightings, meant that at least seven separate female Brownies had been seen in or near the wood yesterday. Evidence that the flight season is still very much alive!

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 August been better I would have returned to Shipton Bellinger in pursuit of that elusive century...  As it is, I'm going to Knepp Wildlands in West Sussex for a few days this week.  Knepp also supports a strong population.  Watch this space...

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 two, one after the other, on the same fork of a blackthorn sucker.

The images below show this process taking place, with the two freshly laid eggs then photographed immediately after the butterfly had moved away. This individual had a deformed right hindwing which, whilst unfortunate for her (though it didn't seem to impair her flight), allowed the abdomen to be clearly seen during ovi-positing.

She was found at 1.33pm and remained in ovi-positing mode until 1.54pm when she flew out into the open field before veering back round towards the shrub line whereupon I lost sight of her.

This site really needs some fine weather over the next couple of weeks. The Hairstreaks are there (albeit in reduced numbers thanks to the storms), but they are largely imprisoned by the atrocious conditions, meaning that egg-laying is simply not on the agenda except for during rare and brief bright periods.








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 set of ashes were under surveillance from 07:30am and the first male flight was observed at 08:05am. For the next two hours things were pretty hectic with three dog fights observed when a pair of males spiralled high above the ashes. Things began to quieten down after 10am and the last male flight was observed at 10:40am. The first female descended just before midday but it was just over an hour before egg laying was observed. All went quite when clouds rolled over the sun about 2pm.

16th August 2015

Day 2 was a shadow of Day 1 - only 10 Brown Hairstreaks seen - all up in ashes and relatively lethargic and definitely no more egg laying. The weather on the two days was similar. Typical betulae behaviour - one day all guns blazing, the next spent in harbour refuelling.

17th August 2015
Another visitor reported a total lack of action at West Williamston but meanwhile they were putting on a show at the Teifi Marshes WTSWW reserve in north Pembrokeshire with four sightings. Three low level nectarers on hemp agrimony were seen by Maggie Sproule & Sarah Bebb. From Maggie's photos two were definitely males and the third almost certainly so (only underside seen). The fourth was heading for the hemp agrimony when the two incumbents decided to see it off.

Below is a non-nectaring female at West Williamston photographed by Jerry English on 15th August and a nectaring male at Teifi Marshes phtographed by Maggie Sproule on 17th August.

As far as I can ascertain Teifi Marshes is the only site in Wales where nectaring Brown Hairstreak are seen - can anybody please explain this to me?





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 that was in the process of being chomped by a crab spider.


A quick reminder to everyone visiting over the next few weeks - the orchard hedgerow is still out of bounds and should be avoided. It is NOT on a public footpath and is private land. The Brown Hairstreak is very widespread within the wood and can literally be seen anywhere! To aid new visitors, there are now signposts and maps up showing the best areas to find the Brown Hairstreak.


The Grafton Wood Open Day is on 30th August this year and is bound to be a great social occasion, combined with some good sightings of Brownies. Hope to see some of you there :)

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 cleared and the temperature increased rapidly. 'Pleased' turned to 'delighted' when I subsequently flushed a female from low in a bramble patch - but she didn't go far. 'Delighted' then gave way to excitement, as I noticed the irregular patterning on her hind wing (bottom left). This ab. uncilinea is apparently a first for Sussex!

Today (15 August) started well, as I returned to the same site at Steyning, which is about 1 Km from the famous Rifle Range. I found two females, one of which remained stationary for 45 minutes, despite the warm, sunny weather (top right).

I later moved on to the Range, where quite a few hopefuls were staring up at the Ash trees. Unfortunately, that's where the hairstreaks stayed. I saw ones and twos scattered around the site, including females, but the big descent to start egg laying is still (eagerly) awaited. None of the females I have found to date has shown any interest in ovipositing.

We are still in that period when the Brown Hairstreak is hard to locate, but they are all in mint condition and fairly inactive. A week from now they will be down in numbers, but fidgeting in and out of the thorn and rapidly collecting nicks and scratches.

The main course is yet to come.



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 record.  In the past I've managed to get to 50 there, before the males conked out for the day.  

Two questions.  1) Has anyone ever bettered this tally? (Neil Hulme need not apply).  2) Is Brother Betulae having a good year? (I've been quite pleased by numbers in N Wilts, but that population is not a patch on the Shipton Bellinger one).  

The habitat at Shipton Bellinger is green lanes and hedges with abundant sloe on rough MOD-owned grazing land, on chalk, like this -


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, the next two days of rain will pass without too much damage, as next week should be good at Grafton.

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 elsewhere?

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 wait!

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). Last year eggs in this area were reported to be hatching on 5th April.

Vince Massimo

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 be marking any eggs in the future.

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 Egg Count 
Sunday December 6th 2014. 
Area
No
Volunteers
Blkthorn status   previous year
Blackthorn management
000 - 025
19
 Steven,  Anne,  John  &  Viv
v good

025 - 050
39
      “         “          “            “
v good

B Glade
16
      “         “          “            “
  good

B Glade 2nd
  3
      “         “          “            “
  ok

050 - 075
 11
      “         “          “            “
good

075 - 100
  7
      “         “          “            “
 ok






100 - 125
12
David,  Andy,  Ruth  &  Val
poor

125 - 150
   3
     “        “         “           “
poor

150 - 175
   5
     “        “         “           “
good

175 - 200
 10
     “        “         “           “
good

Bracken Patch
  8

good






200 - 225
 39
Richard, George, Paul, Gareth
v good

225 - 250
 35
                           and Tony
v good

250 - 275
   9
      “     “     “       “      “
   ok

275 - 300
   2
     “      “     “       “      “
v poor

Shallow Pool
   1
David,  Andy,  Ruth  &  Val
  poor






300 - 325
   4
Nathan,  Kiara,  Alan  &  Nikki
    ok

325 - 350
   1
     “           “          “           “
  poor

350 - 375
   0
     “           “          “           “
  v poor

375 - 400
   0
     “           “          “           “
  v poor






400 - 425
   5
Nathan, Kiara, Alan & Nikki
  poor

425 - 450
   2
     “          “         “         “
  poor

450 - 475
   1
     “          “         “         “
  poor

475 - 500
   0
     “          “         “         “
  poor

       Total
232




(NB 1st December 2013 – transect total = 651 …….  end March 2014 overall reserve total = 1,661 eggs.)