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.)


West Williamston Egg Predation Survey – blog no 9 mid November 2014

The big miss-hap, or ‘accidents do happen’
Before the cut …………..
After the cut .....................
Our study site at West Williamston was divided into 2 halves ….. one - an area outside the electric fence consisting of the youngest blackthorn and surveyed (after the first two weeks) by me, and the other - the area between the electric fence and the field boundary - surveyed by David (Redhead) and consisting of 1 to 3 year old blackthorn much denser in nature.

Shortly after the eighth survey session the grass in the Reserve’s top field (where our survey was taking place) was cut as part of planned management. Unfortunately the contractor failed to see the tags marking very young blackthorn in the field on the outer side of the electric fence.  The tags, eggs and blackthorn were almost all lost (eggs right under the fence fortunately avoided the chop).
This was a bit of a disaster from the ‘overwintering egg predation’ survey’s point of view – or my half of it.  David’s half remains safe and intact being located inside the electric fence between it and the tree-line fence.
 On the other hand I have eight satisfying and illuminating week’s worth of data including recounts, recording, and the dates new eggs were found.  The most interesting outcome to me was establishing that eggs found in a ‘triple’ were laid as a pair and then added to days later.  This indicates that there was something special about that particular spot – the small bush was surrounded  by extensive  blackthorn that appeared to be just as suitable in every way.
The study will continue thanks to David’s commitment, his half of the site being intact. 
David has continued his counts into November and from now on the eggs will be re-found between now and the end of April to show which months the greatest predation takes place.