BC Warwickshire Magazine 2006 by steven cheshire

Butterfly Conservation Magazine Warwickshire Branch January 2006

January 2006

Contents News from the Chairman New Book - The Larger Moths of Warwickshire The Puss Moth: In and Out of the Cocoon by Elaine Rumary Red Admirals and Ash Trees by Phil Parr Species Spotlight - Grizzled Skipper Field Craft Lesson 3: The Purple Emperor by Mike Slater Barclays Support BC in Warwickshire by Val Weston Northumberland Spectacular by Keith & Heather Warmington Focus focuses on moths by Keith Warmington Landscape Conservation by Mike Slater Rugby Area Reports by Phil Parr A Spring Visit to Switzerland by Bill Adams Magazine co-editor’s first year in the field by Debbie Hibbitt The Warwickshire Garden Butterfly Survey 2004 by Margaret Vickery Butterfly Conservation in Hungary by Mike Williams Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS) Report 2004 - A brief resumé by Chris Johnson Warwickshire Branch Committee Contacts

3 4 5 7 8 9 16 17 20 21 26 31 32 35 37 39 43

This magazine is published by the Warwickshire Branch of Butterﬂy Conservation. It is a non-proﬁt company registered in England No: 2206468 and a registered Charity No 254937.

Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Editors or of Butterﬂy Conservation either locally or nationally.

Head Office and membership enquiries to: Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5QP t: 0870 7744309 e: info@butterfly-conservation.org w: http://www.butterfly-conservation.org

The Editors welcome written and/or artwork contributions on all aspects of Lepidoptera in Warwickshire and its’ surrounding areas. Contributions must be neatly hand-written or supplied on disk or by e-mail as a Microsoft Word document. Photographs and illustrations in both colour and B&W may also be submitted separately to the text either as hard copy or digitally as high resolution .tiff or .jpeg ﬁles. All contributions are subject to editing for clarity, correctness, convention and space available.

Copyright © 2006 All Rights Reserved All photographic images and text remain the copyright of the original creators as indicated. Cover Photograph Green Hairstreak at Wolfhampcote Photograph © Steven Cheshire 2006

Whilst all reasonable care will be taken of manuscripts and illustrative material, neither the Editors, nor Butterﬂy Conservation can be held responsible for any loss or damage during custody or return. Contributions should be posted to: Steven Cheshire & Debbie Hibbitt Editors - Warwickshire BC Magazine 85 Grasmere Crescent Nuneaton Warwickshire CV11 6EB or sent by e-mail to: steven@steven-cheshire.co.uk

2 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

News From the Chairman A very happy new year to you all! There have been some considerable upheavals within the branch Committee since the AGM last November. Due to personal reasons Chris Johnson has resigned. He will be greatly missed, as not only was he to take over as Chairman but would have continued as organiser of field trips and as co-ordinator of transects. I would like to express my sincere thanks, and that of the Committee and branch members, to Chris for all he has achieved for the branch in the past. Chris’s resignation also led to that of his partner, Val Hill, who was to have taken over as Treasurer. However we are very pleased to welcome John Liggins as our new Treasurer and thank John very much for rescuing us from what could have been a serious predicament. We are also grateful to Keith Warmington for taking on both the field trips and the transect data input. Keith will now be responsible for all branch butterfly records. I welcomed our new magazine editors, Steven Cheshire and Debbie Hibbitt at the AGM, and am very pleased and relieved to report that there is no change in that department! Their new editorial style has brought the branch magazine into the 21st century and I hope you will find plenty of interest in the following pages. Due to the hard work and enthusiasm of our ROs, Jane Ellis and Jenny Joy; our Conservation Officer, Mike Slater; committee member Phil Parr; and ex-committee member Chris Johnson, we have several major projects underway in the county which will help to ensure the survival of our rarer species (you will find details in the following pages). Never in all my time with Butterfly Conservation (which is approaching 25 years!) have I felt so positive about the future of Warwickshire’s butterflies and moths. Finally, I would like to thank you all for supporting the branch last year and I hope you will continue to do so in the coming years, for without you there would be no branch.

Butterflies and Moths Need Your Help Butterfly Conservation desperately needs your help to spread the word that butterflies need conserving. The best way to do this is to talk informally to the public at events held throughout the county. Could you spare 1-2 hours to spread your enthusiasm? Event entrance would be free and help with travelling costs given. If you can help or would like further information, please contact Jane Ellis - tel: 01788 510695 or email: jellis@butterfly-conservation.org. 3 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Cinnabar Moth © Steven Cheshire

Margaret Vickery Chairman

New Moth Book - The Larger Moths of Warwickshire

This wealth of information brings together the knowledge of local lepidopterists past and present, thereby providing for the ﬁrst time a complete history of almost 600 species of macro-moths which have occurred in Warwickshire since the 19th Century.

Available May 2006

The most comprehensive work ever produced on the Larger Moths of Warwickshire by David Brown • Hardback • Over 300 pages, 16 in full colour • Information on Foodplants • Flight Periods • Historic Changes in Distribution • Population Trends • Habitat Requirements • Moth Conservation Donations to help with the costs of producing this publication would be warmly received. Please make cheques payable to Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch and send to the Treasurer (see Committee contacts).

2007 Butterﬂy Calendar A superb photographic calendar featuring some of Britain’s most colourful native butterﬂies. 2006 calendars also still available. Only £8.00 each + £1.50 P&P.

10% of sales price donated to BC Warwickshire Branch when you quote ref. BCWB Please make cheques payable to Brimstone Design & Print Ltd. Post your order to: Brimstone Design & Print Ltd, Centenary Business Centre, Hammond Close, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV11 6RY. 4 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

The Puss Moth: In and Out of the Cocoon by Elaine Rumary

After at least ﬁve moults the fully grown Puss Moth caterpillar measured about 80mm and weighed about 3g. When it stopped feeding and rested for about 48 hours, the mid-green colouring turned a deep, dull purple and it shrank in length. Pupation was imminent and a log needed for cocoon-building. This caterpillar, contained with others in a washing up bowl with a net cover, had a choice of logs.

Photograph © Elaine Rumary

After resting it began a chargeabout over one log, under another, round the bowl, over another log, across the bowl, back to the first log, along the second. . . for almost an hour. . . and then finally settled on its chosen log and began spinning next to another cocoon. Within the first minute of spinning it ejected its final pellet of frass, which was pink rather than the normal dark greeny-brown.

Above: 3:02pm, 24th July 2002. The Larvae begins to spin its cocoon.

Once the first two or three strands were in place it began to nibble off small fragments of bark and incorporate these with the thread. Two or three splinters of bark were chewed off in each mouthful and were then distributed at two or three points nearby in the web. Before another mouthful was chewed off, each bit of bark was sealed in place by extra silk threads crisscrossing the longer threads. It was actually possible to hear the fragments being broken off the log! Building proceeded at a steady pace, the head arching back and forth and from side to side, the whole body writhing and flowing inside the growing web, working without a pause, lt was totally mesmeric. Four hours later the outside of the shell, about half the length of the caterpillar, was complete but still opaque. Inside the caterpillar worked relentlessly on reinforcements. By the following morning the cocoon was solid and almost indistinguishable from the log, By the end of that day it had hardened. This should have been happening on a branch of the Purple Willow or Twisted Willow in the garden and not on an Elder log in a washing up bowl on a dining room table. In October one of the cocoons was very carefully cut away from its log for investigation. A dull black pupa came to light, the final discarded caterpillar skin in a pile at the tail end. The 28mm pupa rolled/wriggled out, revealing quite a deep hollow in the log 5 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

where the caterpillar had continued to excavate and reinforce the cocoon. After being given a few words of encouragement, it was replaced in the cocoon on the log for over wintering. This was the cocoon from which the moth emerged on 1st May 2003 (the same day as the Puss Moth described above).

Above: 3:27pm, 1st May 2003.

Photographs © Elaine Rumary

Above: 3:32pm, 1st May 2003. One leg props open the pupa case.

Left: 3:32pm, 1st May 2003. One leg props open the pupa case.

At 2.56 pm a crack in the pupa was observed and cocoon and log were lifted out of the bowl on to a tray. Over the next 20 minutes the crack opened out and a mass of white fur could be seen. At 3.20 pm a drop of clear liquid appeared in the form of a balloon from under the ‘head-plate’ of the pupa. In fact it went in and out, like a balloon inﬂating and deﬂating. Had the pupa still been enclosed in the cocoon, this would have softened the wall to allow the moth to break out. (On other cocoons a moist patch at the head end was an indication of imminent emergence.) In the next few minutes the Puss Moth gradually emerged further and further, using one leg to prop open the pupa case. At 3.32 pm the moth whooshed out of the cocoon as the drop of liquid fell, also the ‘head-plate’. The antennae indicated a female. For the next four minutes the moth charged about in a frenzy. . . round the cocoon, over the log, all over the tray, off the tray on to the table, at which stage it was scooped up and returned to the bowl for fear that it would escape. During the frenzied chargeabout, dark orange membranes were revealed between the segments of the abdomen, and through these membranes eggs could be seen. At 3.37 pm she settled on the log to allow the wings to expand, and almost immediately the antennae were folded out of sight. Elaine Rumary

Puss Moth Facts Latin Name:

Cerura vinula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Wingspan:

45-70mm

Flight Period:

Early May to late July

UK Status:

Fairly common throughout Britain

Larvae:

Feeds on Aspen (Populus tremula), Poplar (Populus spp), Willow (Salix spp) between July and September

Overwinters:

Overwinters as a pupa inside a tough cocoon

Where:

Bogs, marshes and damp woodland where Willows are present

6 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Red Admirals and Ash Trees by Phil Parr

I visited an old quarry near Branscombe, Devon several times over the summer. On each occasion I found Red Admirals on or near an old Ash tree which stands in a sheltered spot. Red Admiral © Steven Cheshire

The tree is in poor condition but still bearing leaves, though the trunk appears partly dead and bark is starting to fall away at its base. Much of the trunk is covered with mosses and lichens. On my last visit to Devon the number of Red Admirals on the wing was high, possibly as the result of a recent influx from the continent. I visited the quarry again on 25th September and as I approached the tree which was standing in shade, I disturbed Red Admirals which flew but soon returned to rest on the trunk or nearby ground. I noticed three of them were feeding from cracks in the bark where it was loose from the trunk. They had to stretch their proboscis full length to reach what they were after, sometimes with their heads disappearing into the cracks as well. At one time there were five all showing an interest in this area of bark. There was no surface evidence of running sap. I wondered if they were feeding on juices created by a fungus. On 29th September I was walking on the coast path on the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs NNR at Bindon. In a few places Red Admirals were in good numbers feeding on Ivy. Two flew up from near my feet in a shaded area and shortly returned to the base of an Ash tree which again appeared to be half dead. They appeared to be paying attention to a small creamy coloured blob of fungi which was about the size of a five pence coin, approximately 10cm from the ground. Has anyone else noticed similar behaviour or know of other written accounts of this? Phil Parr 7 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Species Spotlight - The Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae The Grizzled Skipper is a characteristic spring butterfly of southern chalk downland and other sparsely vegetated habitats. Its rapid, buzzing flight can make it difficult to follow, but it stops regularly either to perch on a prominent twig or to feed on flowers such as Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil or Bugle. It can then be identified quite easily by the black and white checkerboard pattern on its wings.

Above: A mating pair of Grizzled Skippers at Wolfhampcote

Above: A Grizzled Skipper basks in the evening sunshine at Wolfhampcote

The butterﬂy occurs across southern England, commonly in small colonies, and has declined in several regions, especially away from the chalk. Foodplants A variety of plants from the Rosaceae family is used, mainly Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria), Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) and Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca). It may also use Barren Strawberry (P. sterilis), Tormentil (P. erecta), Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor), Bramble (Rubus fruticosus), Dog-rose (Rosa canina), and Wood Avens (Geum urbanum). Habitat Three main types are used: woodland rides, glades, and clearings; unimproved grassland, especially chalk downland but also on other calcareous soils including clays; and recently abandoned industrial sites such as disused mineral workings, spoil heaps, railway lines, and even rubbish tips. Occasionally, it breeds on heathland, damp grassland, and dunes. In all habitats it requires plentiful spring nectar plants, at least one of the main foodplants growing in short vegetation (<10cm) usually with patches of bare ground, and patches of taller vegetation (10-50 cm) and scrub or woodland edges.

Above: A Grizzled Skipper feeds on Forget-me-not at Wolfhampcote

The Grizzled Skipper can be found at many locations in Warwickshire including Wolfhampcote, Draycote Water and Brandon Wood.

Photographs taken by Steven Cheshire during a Warwickshire Butterﬂy Conservation Branch visit to Wolfhampcote on 15th May 2005. 8 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Field Craft Lesson 3 The Purple Emperor - rare or just elusive? by Mike Slater

I might be described as having a passion for watching and observing butterflies in all their stages. Or as my long-suffering wife Diane says certifiably mad. Therefore, accepting that I am completely barking mad, it should not be hard to understand that observing butterflies for me is not just about going to a well known colony site to see a particular species. In short, I am not just about ticking off a species from the British list in the same way that bird twitchers would do. What I most enjoy is the challenge of testing my field skills and trying to learn new things about all species in all stages of their life cycle. Hopefully then, this will explain that despite my 37 years interest in butterflies, I had only ever once seen the Purple Emperor before 2004. My one and only previous sighting was on a Branch field trip to the Butterfly Conservation Nature Reserve of Bentley Station Meadow (next to Alice Holt Forest). Literally, as I entered the wood, I saw my first Purple Emperor which pursued me at head height, flying with me for about a hundred metres, a truly magical experience. Soon after I found a so-called master tree and watched 3 or 4 males coming and going for a few minutes. I then moved off to explore other areas of the wood and to look for other species. I have since learned that I was extremely lucky. I have spoken to many people who have gone to much better Purple Emperor sites than Alice Holt forest and have never seen a Purple Emperor despite several attempts. My next sighting of a Purple Emperor was thanks to a mass release of adults into three Warwickshire woods. Approximately 80 Purple Emperors were released in Oversley Wood, 50 into Wappenbury Wood and 163 into Ryton Wood. Whatever your views on unofficial releases the fact I was fortunate enough to see the Purple Emperor again gave not only me, but many others, a great deal of pleasure. From the amount of visitors in 2004 to Ryton Wood the knowledge of these Purple Emperor releases appears to have spread very quickly across the Midlands Lepidoptera world. For me it just demonstrated the lure of this spectacular species. The only downside was that I wasn’t able to help these visitors to see even a glimpse of this rare or elusive butterfly. Many of these visitors failed to see a Purple Emperor despite staying in the wood all day. I can only hope that the sightings of some Photograph © Keith Warmington 2005

9 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

of the other Ryton Woods species like the White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary somewhat lessened their disappointment, but looking at their faces at the end of the day, I still have my doubts. Feeling somewhat ashamed at not being able to help these visitors I became determined to improve my field craft. Selfishly I also wanted to improve my chances of seeing the Purple Emperor. Despite having spent most of my spare time in the wood during July I still failed to see a Purple Emperor on most of my visits. This year, due to other conservation commitments, I spent much less time at Ryton Wood. Despite this, I saw a total of ten male Purple Emperors. I only failed to see a Purple Emperor on one occasion when visiting Ryton Wood and this was during poor weather. You are probably therefore asking how I managed to improve my success rate? Without doubt this was all down to me being able to replicate the groundbreaking work of Liz Goodyear and Andrew Middleton. Andrew’s and Liz’s work followed on from the many years of field observations by that renowned butterfly expert Ken Wilmott. So what did I learn from their work? Here are the key findings from their research: General Purple Emperor Observations 1) Though Purple Emperors can be seen from late June to mid August the vast majority of sightings are concentrated in mid July between 7th to 17th July. The 13th July is the peak date. Purple Emperors quickly take advantage of any sunny spell to become active. This range of activities can include territorial behaviour, pairing and egg laying activity. In other words Purple Emperors are most active in good sunshine. 2) Purple Emperors are rarely seen using flowers to obtain nectar, however, Sweet Chestnut has been reported as a nectar source in some southern locations. Purple Emperors will use Aphid Honeydew and sap runs to obtain energy. Oak sap runs appear to be the Purple Emperor’s favourite source of sap. 3) Many sightings of Purple Emperors are well away from woods. It is now thought that Purple Emperors may breed up to 5 kilometres from their congregation areas. 4) It is believed that by May between only 5 and 15 Purple Emperor larvae survive per 100 Sallow bushes. Broad-leafed Sallow (Goat Willow) Salix caprea is the preferred Sallow though the Purple Emperor will use Narrow-leafed (Common or Grey) Sallow Salix cinceria. Sallows frequently hybridise between these two species. The Purple Emperor will use the hybrid. Any bush over 2 metres will be used, but trees between 15-20 years over 10 metres high seem to be preferred. It is not known how many Sallows are needed to sustain a Purple Emperor colony. This is due to the fact that it is not known for certain how far females will fly to find suitable sallow bushes. The best estimate is 400 suitable Sallow. 5) Female sightings appear to occur over a longer time than males although male sightings are more frequent. Females can be seen throughout July (and occasionally into August). Male sighting are concentrated in the middle of the month of July. 10 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Above: The pairing strategy. Females enter the established territories of males, are immediately challenged and if receptive, lead the male to a suitable lofty platform to copulate.

Female Observations 1) Early observers have reported that female Purple Emperors only lay 100 eggs. It is thought that between 6 and10 eggs are laid each day over a ten-day period. Female egg laying is more prevalent in good sunshine. The Purple Emperor takes up to 10 minutes to find a suitable location and to lay an egg. Breeders have told me that females can lay between 350 to 400 eggs in captivity. Observations of females in August indicate that egg laying might be spread over a longer period. Could this mean that females move away from woods during late July August to lay more eggs? It is known that other butterfly species fly further away from the main breeding area when they have laid the majority of their eggs as they are lighter. Photographs © Keith Warmington 2005

2) Grounded females only appear to take moisture. Such sightings are generally thought to be much rarer than male groundings. In 1987 Ken Wilmott saw 34 grounded males compared to only 4 grounded females. Liz and Andrew’s study observed an approximate 50/50 split in sightings. All sightings were between 1200 and 1515 hrs. Female grounding can be in less sunny but warm conditions than males. Less sightings are seen in windier or cooler conditions, conversely more sightings are seen in drier conditions. Above: Early July is the best time to see grounded Purple Emperors

3) Peak female sightings are around 13th July. There is a much slower drop off of 11 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Above: The sequence of activity of the male Purple Emperor from early morning until midday. Early morning on the ground, low elevation soaring, accumulation of height and establishment of territory.

sightings than males during the rest of July and into August. 4) Females favour sap runs near abundant Sallows. It is believed that they build up their energy reserves before egg laying. 5) Peak egg laying occurs between 1200 and 1400 hrs. The reason for this is that females need to ensure that the selected sallow leaf will be in the shade for the rest of the season, thus preventing desiccation of the leaf and larval mortality. In total, egg laying has been observed between 1123 and 1512 hrs. Egg laying can occur in fairly dull weather but is more prevalent in full sunshine. During the study period, egg laying activity has been observed between 13th July and 31st July. Male Observations 1) Congregation trees are usually broad-leafed trees with wide leaves suitable for perching such as Oak, Ash and Beech. Wider leafed trees are favoured and are used like watch towers. 2) The peak time for seeing grounded males is 1030 to 1130 hrs. Grounded males have been seen between 0800 and 1215 hrs. Sightings later than 1300 hrs are rare, although an unusual sighting was seen during the study period at 1445 hrs. Early July, which is early in the ďŹ&#x201A;ight period, is the peak time for seeing grounded males. The very warm summer of 1976 (the drought summer) was a very good year for seeing grounded males, probable the best in recent years. It is believed that males need to take salts (sodium) to make them fertile. Purple Emperors are commonly seen nectaring on dung (horse and dog droppings are commonly used) and dead animals. Many historical sightings have come from gamekeeperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gibbets where gamekeepers used to display so-called vermin on lines until they rotted. The hanging animals included weasels, stoats and birds of prey. Fortunately this practise is now rare. 12 ButterďŹ&#x201A;y Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

3) Congregation areas within the tree canopy are normally around a tree that protrudes above the surrounding trees. These types of congregation area often go undiscovered because they are off the normal paths. 4) The majority of known congregation areas are along edges of rides or along a wood’s edge. Most of these congregation areas have a half bowl shaped depression in the tree canopy. These allow for near perfect male patrol areas. 5) Male congregation activity is concentrated in the middle of the month in Hertfordshire. The peak date is 13th July. Normal peak activity time is between 7th and 17th July. Sightings at known congregation areas in late July and August are rare.

Photographs © Keith Warmington 2005

6) Males can be seen at pre-congregation areas (some times called warm up areas) which are near the congregation areas between 1125 and 1300 hrs. These areas are used on an ad-hoc, temporary basis.

Above: Congregation of Purple Emperors usually occurs in broad-leaved trees in open sun

7) Congregation areas (high level activity) is usually between 1300 and 1800 hrs. Peak activity is between 1510 and 1640 hrs. Patrolling flights are normally at temperatures around 22 degrees and are rarely later than 1900 hrs. South facing perches are favoured so that the males can face into the sun. West facing perches are used in the late afternoon. 8) The sight of clashing males (males that fly in combat at the same congregation area) is rare in small colonies. However, males will often pursue other insects, especially Purple Hairstreaks that also become more active in the evenings. 9) Males tend to perch at congregation areas in less favourable conditions. However, they quickly become active when conditions return to full sun especially in warm sunny spells of 15 degrees or above. 10) Temporary or warm up congregation areas may only be used for a short time in any one year. Permanent congregation areas (the old master tree definition) are used year 13 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

after year. Congregation areas are rarely consisting of just one tree (hence the change of name to congregation area). 11) Congregation areas are always at the highest point in the locality of the colony (they don’t have to be in a wood). They have been noted in nearby hedgerows if this corresponds to the highest point. How to see a purple Emperor My top ten tips for seeing a Purple Emperor are as follows: 1) First tip is don’t bother looking in Ryton Wood for a Purple Emperor! Introductions are more prone to failure than success. It could be that no Purple Emperors will be seen in 2006. I would recommend going to Bentley Wood in Wiltshire, a renowned Purple Emperor site. 2) Males appear to be easier to locate than females so concentrate your effort on looking for males. 3) It is not possible to predict with any certainty where grounded males will be found. Historically butterfly collectors used a whole range of complicated lures to try and attract male Purple Emperors but even these lures did not succeed on every occasion. Therefore I recommend trying to find a male congregation area. 4) Congregation areas are found at the highest point in a wood. Therefore check your local ordnance survey map to locate the approximate highest point. If you can use a GPS device to find exactly where the highest point is then this should help narrow down your search areas. 5) Concentrate your searches around 13th July, the peak time for sightings. 6) Concentrate your searches between 1230 and 1640 hrs (12.30pm to 4.40pm), as this is the peak time for sightings. 7) Concentrate your searches along woodland rides. Remember to look out for that half bowl shaped depression in the canopy area. 8) Look up on the side of a woodland ride that faces south during the above times or west (in the late afternoon). Pause for about 5 minutes at each suitable location. Sometimes you can have two bowl shaped depressions in the canopy near each other. This is the situation at Ryton where one is used as a congregation, the other is never used. They appear identical so the reason for this is not known. 9) Concentrate your searches during times of full sun when temperature is above 22 degrees. 10) Use binoculars or a monocular to check out the male Purple Emperors when they return to their favoured perch. Remember these perches normally face into the sun. Good luck! 14 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

# Males

Location and time of observation

Date

Ride 15A (Start observations 14:40, ﬁnish 14:57hrs) Ride 1A (Start observations 13:33, ﬁnish 13:35hrs) No other details recorded

9/7

Ride 21 (Seen at 12:25 during transect survey) Ride 1A (Start observations 14:55 ﬁnish 14:57hrs) No other details recorded

10/7

Ride 15A (Start observations) Following times indicate start of patrolling ﬂights 17:08, 17:12, 17:13, 17:16, 17:17, 17:19, 17:22, 17:22hrs Observer leaves area and returns 17:40hrs Following times indicate start of patrolling ﬂights 17:42, 17:43, 17:43 (chase Purple Hairstreak),17:44, 17:45, 17:45, 17:46 (chase Purple Hairstreak),17:48, 17:50 (chase Purple Hairstreak),17:53, 17:55, 17:55 (chase Purple Hairstreak) 17:57, 18:02hrs (Finish observations)

11/7

Ride 1A (Seen by Dave Cole) then me. Following times indicate start of patrolling ﬂights 13:35, 13:44, 13:48 (chase Large White), 13:49, 13:50, 13:55hrs (Finish observations)

17/7

Ride 1A (Short check of sight 13:53hrs saw one patrolling ﬂight)

19/7

Ride 15A (Start observations) 20/7 Following times indicate start of patrolling ﬂights 16:15, 16:16, 16:16, 16:18, 16:20, 16:20 (chase Purple Hairstreak), 16:21, 16:25, 16:28, 16:34hrs (Finish observations)

Ride 15A (Start observations) 23/7 Following times indicate start of patrolling ﬂights 15:01 (chase Purple Emperor two clashing males), 15:03 (chase Purple Emperor two clashing males)

Ride 22 Female seen at approx 17:30hrs by visitor from Cheshire

23/7

Field Notes from the Ryton Wood 2005 Season First Sighting on 9th July. Last sighting on 23rd July. Total sightings were over 15 days. Two congregation areas have been identiﬁed. I believe that two or maybe three other areas remain undiscovered. A total of 11 sightings (10 by myself) were seen in 2005. Male congregation area sightings accounted for 9. One male was seen elsewhere. The only female sighting was in Sallow area where egg laying was seen in 2004. No sighting of grounded males or females, no nectaring or use of sap run was seen. 15 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

1 sighting of clashing males was seen on 23rd July. Several episodes of other butterflies mainly Purple Hairstreak being chased were observed. Site one - SP383 726 ride 1A. Height 97 metres Site two - SP380 723 ride 15A. Height 99 metres Site three - SP not confirmed ride 16. Height 99 metres approx. References Hertfordshire Purple Emperor ‘Apatura iris’ Project, Liz Goodyear/Andrew Middleton, 2003. Purple Emperor Project Progress Report for 2003, Liz Goodyear/Andrew Middleton, 2004. The Purple Emperor Butterfly, Butterfly Conservation booklet, Willmott 1990. Species Action Plan Purple Emperor ‘Apatura iris’, Butterfly Conservation, Bourn and Warren 2000. Mike Slater

Barclays Supporting Butterﬂy Conservation in Warwickshire By Val Weston

Have you driven by the gate at Ryton Meadows Reserve and seen the big Barclays Banner? This banner represents that Barclays and myself are proud to have supported Butterfly Conservation through the Barclays community programme. The support I am referring to is when colleagues from our office in Birmingham joined me in mornings of hard labour, with Mike Slater cracking the whip. Over 3 Saturday mornings we have planted wild flower seeds, trees and fence posts, under the Barclays Volunteering Scheme. The scheme allows 5+ members of Barclays staff a budget to carry out a community project. I’m not sure if Mike keeps wanting us to go back because he likes the work we did or the fact that we had so many left-over cakes! We aren’t the only team of Barclays staff to help at the reserve, a team from the Coventry area came too. Our support doesn’t just stop at volunteering, Barclays also operates a £ for £ matched funding scheme, where fund-raising by a member of staff is doubled. Staff from our branch get together on a regular basis and host fund-raising events, such as cake sales, coffee mornings and nominate a local charity to give to. This money is matched £ for £ by Barclays. Individual staff also raise funds for their own chosen charities. This is where I have also helped support Ryton Meadows. I ran the environment day stall with John Reeve and Chris Johnson and raised £246.00 for the Butterfly Conservation. Barclays then doubled it. All it leaves me to say is “Thanks Barclays for supporting my charity work”. Val Weston

In 2004, over 25,000 Barclays employees volunteered their time and skills in the community. Barclays commitment to the community is about much more than just giving money. Fundamental to its success is the time and skills Barclays employees give to the communities in which they live and work.

16 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Northumberland Spectacular by Keith & Heather Warmington

Following a chance conversation with a Warden on the Northumberland Wildlife Tourism stand at the annual Birdwatchers Fair at Rutland Water in 2004 we decided to take a 2 week break in Northumberland in July 2005. This proved to be fortuitous on a number of counts, firstly we chose two weeks of perfect summer weather, secondly we chose a cottage in an almost perfect location for wildlife and finally our timing coincided with a plentiful supply of good butterfly species. Some forty years ago the Northumberland coast around Bamburgh was a regular destination for our family beach holidays and apart from a weekend visit on the return from a birding holiday in the Cairngorms ten years ago we had not visited since. The first thing that struck me was that the place had changed very little in those forty years. The beaches were still amazingly clean and very quiet (we were careful to avoid school holidays!) and the local people were incredibly friendly and welcoming. Our base for the fortnight was Ross Farm near Belford, which was ideally situated between Bamburgh and Holy Island (Lindisfarne). The cottage was on the edge of a pine shelterbelt and just a field away from the dunes and Ross Sands. From the cottage we had sightings of Curlew, Roe Deer and Fox while Brown Hare and Stoat regularly visited the garden. The Farne Islands were easily accessible and we made two trips to enjoy the nesting seabirds, particularly the Arctic Terns and Puffins which were having an exceptionally good breeding season. We were aware that July was a good time for one or two species of butterfly that we had yet to see, such as Large Heath and Northern Brown Argus and also for Dark Green Fritillary and Grayling which we had yet to photograph well. We did a bit of research on the internet before hand and www.ukbutterflies.co.uk (a superb site!) gave details of two sites for Large Heath in the region, namely Harbottle Crags and Ford Moss. We decided to visit Harbottle Crags in the first week to stand a good chance of seeing Large Heath and we trudged up the heather clad slopes in sweltering heat in search of our prey. We reached a boggy area near to the summit which had Cottongrass which is the larval foodplant and, more importantly, Cross-leaved Heath which is said to be the main nectar source for the adults in this habitat. As we stood and scanned the area a light brown butterfly got up from the bog. We got the binoculars on it and were pretty sure that it was a Large Heath. The problem was it flew off towards the crest of the hill and just kept going and going and going…until it was out of site! We could tell that this was not going to be easy. We moved on, following the path of the fleeing butterfly and eventually came to a small upland lake. At one end was a large expanse of bog with the necessary foodplants. We settled down to scan the area and soon picked out several Large Heath through 17 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

the binoculars all nectaring on Cross-leaved Heath. They were easily identified, being slightly larger than Small Heath (about the size of Gatekeeper) with distinctive eyespots on the underside of the hind wing. The camera was burning a hole through its camera bag by this time but we realised that the area that the butterflies were in was not accessible as there was a small boggy inlet into the lake which would have had to have been crossed. We settled on returning to the first boggy patch that was more accessible and I began to quarter the bog carefully with the hope of spotting a butterfly. Sure enough I disturbed a Large Heath and this time it only moved to a nearby flower. I had good views through the binoculars and approached with the camera poised. Unfortunately I took one step too many and before I could press the shutter the butterfly took off and once again disappeared over the horizon! We saw eight Large Heath in total at Harbottle but the species will remain on my photographic wanted list for another year. A visit to Ford Moss proved negative with only numerous Small Heath and too great a distance from the raised bog to spot any Large Heath. We subsequently decided to turn our photographic attention towards Holy Island and the clouds of Dark Green Fritillary that can be found in the dunes particularly in the area of The Snook off the causeway road. Without doubt the Dark Green Fritillary was the most abundant butterfly species in the dune habitat with an occasional Grayling and Common Blue being the only other butterflies. The Six-spot Burnet Moth was the only other species to equal the abundance of the fritillary and it was not unusual to see every flower on a Vipers Bugloss stem occupied by one of these common moths.

Photographs © Keith Warmington 2005

In spite of the abundance of Dark Green Fritillary, a bit of work and a bit of patience was still required to get any decent photographs. The hot weather seemed to keep the butterﬂy on the move and they were easily disturbed when they did eventually land to nectar on thistle or Vipers Bugloss. The challenge when photographing this species is to get good images of the underside and this was best achieved on an overcast morning when the butterﬂies were still at roost.

Above: Underside of the Dark Green Fritillary

Above: Dark Green Fritillary

18 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Photographs © Keith Warmington 2005

National Moth Night fell on the 9th of July whilst we were away and because of this we couldn’t resist getting a collapsible travel moth trap to take with us. My good friends at Focus Optics of Corley had just begun to stock a range of moth traps, which was very opportune and we were able to purchase one (a Johnson Ranger with 125 watt MV) the day before we travelled! We decided to have a dummy run with it on the Sunday night of the week before and trapped 28 species that took most of the Monday morning to identify (well we are only novice moth-ers!). Highlights were Garden Tiger, Poplar Hawk Moth, Bordered Sallow, Archers Dart and Small Rufous. The most numerous species were Barred Straw and Spectacle. On National Moth Night we managed 32 species with 7 Garden Tiger, Ghost Moth, Drinker, Sallow Kitten, Grey Dagger, Burnished Brass, Coxcomb Prominent and Least Minor being the highlights.

Above: Barred Yellow

Above: Sallow Kitten Moth

Above: Grey Daggar

Above: Garden Tiger Moth

We never did catch up with the Northern Brown Argus but we did find an excellent site on the walk to St Abbs Head, just north of Berwick, which was fenced and signed as a Northern Brown Argus breeding site. The area had Common Rock Rose growing on a sheltered sunny hillside but I suspect we had just missed them as many butterflies emerged early in 2005. All in all Northumberland has a lot to offer the wildlife enthusiast and we will be returning soon to catch up with the Large Heath again and perhaps a Northern Brown Argus. Keith & Heather Warmington 19 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Focus focuses on moths by Keith Warmington

Photographs © Keith Warmington 2005

Focus Optics at Church Lane, Corley (just north of Coventry) are a long established retailer of binoculars and telescopes but also have an amazing selection of wildlife books, clothing, bird feeders, nest boxes and all things of interest to the wildlife enthusiast. The proprietor, Tim Fallowell, has long been a supporter of the Warwickshire Branch and has sponsored and sold our butterﬂy book as well as allowing us to record the butterﬂies on the site (which includes the most northerly colony of Marbled White in Warwickshire!). Therefore, when Tim decided to stock moth traps and equipment and asked if we would run a couple of traps on the site last August, we were only too happy to oblige.

Above: Lesser Swallow Prominent

Above: Red Underwing

Tim is always keen to add to the list of wildlife species found on the site and this event was used to kick-start the moth list. The site has a mixture of habitats with woodland, unimproved grassland and wetland in the form of a large pond. We ran two mercury vapour traps overnight, a Robinson which was situated near to the pond and a Johnson Ranger portable in the woodland. Unfortunately the weather was not ideal and it was a damp Saturday morning that saw Nigel Stone, Chris Johnson and myself sorting through the species. Nigel had kindly supplemented our catch with a few interesting specimens trapped in his nearby garden so that we could show a good range of species to the public who visited the site that morning. A total of 58 moths were identiﬁed made up of 13 macros and 7 micros. The macros included Chinese Character, Lesser Swallow Prominent, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Six-striped Rustic, Flounced Rustic and Red Underwing. The Red Underwing was a bit of a cheat, as it was found on the wall of the farmhouse and didn’t come to the trap but it was a stunning specimen and so we made the most of it! All in all it proved a worthwhile exercise which helped to promote moths to a wider public and we intend to carry out further trapping at the site next year. I urge members who have not visited the site to pay Tim a visit as I think we are lucky to have such an establishment on the doorstep and it should be supported. Keith Warmington 20 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Landscape Conservation

Warwickshire Branch’s Princethorpe Woodlands Landscape Defragmentation Project

by Mike Slater Rationale for Landscape Conservation For many years it has been thought that the best way forward for conservation has been to try and conserve all species in a landscape rather than at just single sites. Single site conservation is always susceptible to some unforeseen catastrophic episode which can cause a local extinction. This conservation technique fits very well with the meta-population theory used to plan the conservation of individual butterfly species. Meta-population theory presumes that colonies of butterflies naturally go extinct and recolonise sites or parts of a site as habitat changes either through natural processes or by the effects of management. If you accept this theory and use it as a conservation technique then it is important that new suitable habitat is created faster than the areas that are deteriorating and that this new habitat is close enough for colonisation to be able to take place. Nationally, Butterfly Conservation is one of the leading conservation organisations involved in several major landscape projects. The Salisbury Plain Life Project is just one example. Salisbury Plain is the largest area of unimproved semi-natural chalk grassland in Europe and covers a massive 14,000 hectares. In 2004 this area had 35% of all the Marsh Fritillary larval webs recorded in Britain and demonstrates just how important this area is. The other part of the project area covers Porton Down. Porton Down is not only another very large area of semi-natural chalk grassland, it is without doubt the best butterfly site in Britain. It has 40 resident breeding species and a further 3 migrants species - Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow - that breed there each year. Unlike most areas of Britain this site has only lost one species in recent decades - the High Brown Fritillary. I was fortunate enough to visit both sites in August this year as part of a symposium I attended on the restoration and management of chalk grasslands in Europe. I hope to bring what I learned at this conference back to Warwickshire to conserve our rare species. It is not on the same scale, but the Warwickshire Branch of Butterfly Conservation is actively playing its part in Butterfly Conservation’s National Conservation Strategy. The Warwickshire Branch has determined 9 prime lepidoptera areas within our Branch Area. One such area is the Princethorpe Woodlands. Several conservation groups and key statutory partners have come together to form a project team. Eddie Asbury has been employed by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to co-ordinate this project. Other key partners in this project include several independent woodland owners and key statutory agencies such as DEFRA, FWAG and the Forestry Commission. This project has two flagship species, the Dormouse and importantly for us, the Wood White Leptidea sinapis. Butterfly Conservation has agreed to be the lead partner for the Wood White part of this project. Jane Ellis, one of our Regional Officers and myself have already drawn up an ambitious draft action plan to improve the fortunes of this species within the Princethorpe complex. This action plan has been circulated to all key 21 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

partners for their comments. Nationally it is thought that there are only approximately 80 colonies of the Wood White left in Britain, therefore the Warwickshire Branch target of increasing the number of colonies from 1 to 4 in the Princethorpe complex of woodlands by 2010 will be an important contribution to this butterfly’s survival and recovery nationally. Facts about the Princethorpe Project Landscape Project The Princethorpe woods form a large area of woodland covering a total area of 432.47 hectares or 1068.2 acres. Nineteen individual woods make up the Princethorpe Woodlands complex of woodlands. Several of these woods are contiguous with other woods. Overall they form 7 or 8 blocks. The South and North Cubbington woods are bisected by a major road, the B4453. This road is a probable barrier to movement between these two woods so it is debateable if this is one block of woodland or two. The remaining blocks of woodland are divided by a variety of habitats, arable farm land, improved pasture, fallow land and active quarries. Despite these barriers to movement, no block of woodland is greater than 500 metres from any other. There is already substantial evidence that butterflies can fly between these blocks of woods in favourable years particularly the more powerful flying species such as the Silverwashed Fritillary and White Admiral. The main aim of this project is to improve the connectivity of these woods so it becomes much easier for species to move between the individual woods. Historically there would probably have been more mature hedgerows connecting these woods. In addition many of these fields were probably full of wild flowers which encourage butterflies to leave the woods to nectar. This would have increased the chances of dispersal. If you go back even further all these woods were probably part of one much larger forest. To summarise - this landscape is now far more fragmented. It is not only that the habitat between these woods is more fragmented but the individual habitats within the woods themselves are more fragmented. Over a hundred years all these woods would have been managed. The system would have been coppiced with standard trees. This means the under storey woods have been cut on a cycle between 8 and 20 years and the mature trees within the coppice plots would have been thinned on a regular basis for timber. This would have meant that within any individual large wood there would have been several habitats where butterflies such as the Wood White could have bred for a few years until the coppice grew up again and made the habitat unsuitable. The connectivity between these individual habitats would have been improved further by having wide sunny rides through the wood. These paths would have been originally created for the purpose of access and timber extraction; inadvertently they also created excellent wildlife corridors. Despite the increased fragmentation between these woods and the increased fragmentation within individual woods due to lack of management, they are still one of the most important wooded areas in Warwickshire for all types of wildlife. These woods are by far the most diverse area for butterflies and moths. Thirty five species of butterfly have been recorded in the area in the last two years. A thirty sixth species, the Wall Brown, is now believed to be extinct. This extinction is believed to be related to climate change though the exact reason is unknown. Despite it being probably extinct it was recorded fairly recently in 1998. 22 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Several butterfly and moth species are of national conservation importance. Important butterfly species recorded in the area in the last two years include the Wood White, Grizzled Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Silver-washed Fritillary, Dark Green Fritillary, Purple Emperor, White Admiral, Green Hairstreak, Brown Hairstreak and White-letter Hairstreak. In addition there are other important butterfly species of local importance including the Brown Argus, Marbled White and Small Heath. When assessing the overall importance of these woods the resident moth species should not be forgotten, 571 species of moth have so far been recorded. The rarer residents include the Light Orange Underwing, Great Oak Beauty, Cloaked Carpet and Mere Wainscot. The Recovery Plan These landscape projects are all about species recovery, reversing species decline and increasing the number of known colonies. Though we have designed a specific action plan for the Wood White this does not mean that we haven’t got ambitious targets for other rare species in the Princethorpe woodland complex. What have we done so far? 1) I have written ten individual species recovery plans covering all of Warwickshire’s rare butterflies. Thanks to the help of Jenny Joy, our other RO, and the support of Butterfly Conservation’s Head Office, we are producing 50 copies of these plans. These plans will not only be distributed to our key conservation partners but also statutory agencies and planners so they can be fully informed. We can’t blame people for destroying habitats of our rare species if they don’t know where they are. All of these plans have targets to increase the number of colonies of our rare species not only within the Princethorpe Complex but the other 8 key lepidoptera areas. 2) A provisional site register has been compiled. This register not only identifies every site where a rare species is known to still exist but also extinct sites and probably more importantly, areas within the wider landscape that could become suitable for a species if the correct management is instated or could become suitable by undertaking habitat creation. 3) All of the information contained within this site register has been forwarded to DEFRA (Department of the Environment Farming and Rural Affairs). This organisation determines which grants farmers can be awarded. Therefore DEFRA probably has the greatest influence of any organisation for conservation in the wider landscape. The higher level grants can provide help to farmers to undertake special activities to support conservation aims particularly for our rare species. Projects we are exploring are strategic planting of trees and the sowing of wildflower areas to join these woodlands together again. 4) We have already had several site visits with landowners including Warwickshire County Council employees at Ryton Pools Country Park. We have met with Hanson Aggregates who own Bubbenhall Wood and the sand and gravel quarries between Wappenbury and Ryton Woods. Other key contacts have been made with the owner of the Coppice Ryton, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust who own Wappenbury and Old Nunn Woods and the Forestry Commision who manage Weston and Waverly Woods. Further site visits are planned with not only the woodland owners but the farmers who own the lands between these woods. 23 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

5) All of these woods were resurveyed in this year to assess their suitability for individual key species. These surveys have informed our target assessment to increase the number of colonies. 6) All woods have been surveyed to see if colonisation by key species has already taken place. Small colonies are notoriously difficult to locate so for certain species egg and caterpillar searches were carried out. The number of definite colonies of the White Admiral within the 8 woodland blocks has been increased from 3 to 7. In addition the area confirmed as being used for breeding has also been increased. For the first time breeding has been confirmed in Old Nunn Wood, New Wood and Dukes Wood complex and Princethorpe Great Wood. The only wood I failed to find White Admirals in was the Coppice Ryton. This is the smallest wood in the complex and the habitat assessment resulted in the habitat as only being marginally suitable without further work. 7) I am working on a plan to ensure that we check out these colonies more regularly and where possible monitor key species by species transect or timed count. I am working with Tom Brereton to assess habitats more professionally by use of the drop disc method and recording key aspects of the habitat. The Future There is still much work to do and we could always do with more help especially with habitat and species surveying. Full training will be given so if anyone is interested in finding out more please contact me. Even though there is no official project team for the other 8 habitat areas we are still making progress therefore we also need help in these areas as well. So, if you want to make a difference, call us. The following is a brief summary of the branch’s activity over the last 12 months:

Photograph © Steven Cheshire 2005

Great Central Disused Railways and Spoilbanks Phil Parr is leading on the disused railways and adjoining sites around Rugby. Phil has already made fantastic progress at Wolfhampcote Cutting and has made site visits to The Tunnels, Fenny Compton with British Waterways and with Severn Trent at Draycote Water. We have also met with the owner of Newbold Grounds Cutting. Princethorpe Woods Brandon Several recorders have searched this area and carried out surveys of the woods around Brandon including Ray Healey, Chris Johnson and myself. North Warwickshire Post Industrial Habitats Keith Warmington is leading on the Brown ﬁeld sites around Nuneaton and has had various meetings with quarry companies in the Nuneaton area to help conserve the Dingy Skipper amongst other species. He has also been surveying sites in the Tamworth area. 24 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Above: Judkins Quarry, Nuneaton

Photograph © Jane Ellis 2005

Photograph © Phil Parr 2005

Southam Lias Grasslands Jane Ellis and myself have met with site owners or have visited all the potential sites for Small Blue, Grizzled Skipper, Dingy Skipper and Chalk Carpet in the areas including Nelsons Quarry, Southam Quarry, Stockton Cutting, Harbury Spoilbank, Bishops Hill and Bishops Bowl amongst others. David Brown made a special visit with me to Southam Quarry and conﬁrmed a second colony site for Warwickshire for the nationally rare Chalk Carpet. We have project support by Barclays Bank (thanks to Val Weston) to create a new colony of Small Blues on the Southam Bypass by planting plugs of Kidney Vetch.

Above: Val Weston and her Barclays team plant 800 Kidney Vetch plugs on the Southam By-pass

Above: Planting Kidney Vetch on the Southam Bypass road verge

Southam Grasslands Kineton Chris Johnson and myself had a tour of Kineton Amy site courtesy of Dave Sollis, the site’s Conservation Officer. Despite poor weather we confirmed several colonies of Grizzled Skipper and Dingy Skipper by egg searches and the occasional sightings of adults when the sun came out. Several other sites, including the Heritage Motor Centre, were also searched and new colonies of both Grizzled and Dingy Skipper were confirmed. South Western Woodlands and Grasslands Chris Johnson, Jane Ellis and Neil Thompson had a site visit at Wilmcotte Quarry and Wilmott Rough. Richard Lamb and myself visited Grove Wood. Richard confirmed that Purple Emperors have survived for at least one season after their release at Oversley Wood. I confirmed several colonies of White Admiral by egg and larval search, including a new colony, at Mays Wood. Sutton Park Harvey Skelton has been carrying out detail surveys for the Green Hairstreak. Friends of Sutton Park have also managed to obtain substantial funding for more work to conserve the park’s butterflies and moths. Whichford and Wolford Woods Complex I have visited all the woods in this complex and I confirmed that Little Wolford Wood is unsuitable for the White Admiral but confirmed that Whichford Wood has got a small colony of White Admirals following a larval seach. Wolford Wood still remains the county’s strongest colony site for the Wood White and Silver-washed Fritillary. Mike Slater 25 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Rugby Area Reports December 2005 by Phil Parr

Wolfhampcote The Wolfhampcote site is part of the old, dis-used line of the Great Central Railway. The northern end of the site is an embankment and the southern end is a cutting. This site is of great importance to butterﬂies in Warwickshire as it is home to a large colony of Grizzled Skipper and Green Hairstreak. The grassland habitat supporting these key species has until recently survived well due to a good population of rabbits, but scrub invasion is now a serious threat and we were becoming very concerned about it. If nothing was done our butterﬂies’ habitat will disappear and them with it.

Photographs © Phil Parr 2005

John the farmer was already involved with DEFRA’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme but hadn’t appreciated that the old railway had such a high wildlife value and that its management could be funded by a Higher Level Stewardship Farm Environment Plan. DEFRA’s Matt Willmott suggested they contact us for advice and we drew up a management plan initially for a ﬁve year period. I spent a lot of time over the next six months producing the plan which was well received.

Above left: Grizzled Skipper Egg under Cinquefoil leaf at Wolfhampcote GS Workshop (15th May 2005) Above right: Guided Walk & Tom Brereton at Wolfhampcote (15th May 2005)

The ﬁrst stage was put into action in late 2004 and saw John’s team, with our guidance, remove mature Hawthorns from sections of the cutting to restore species-rich grassland which was being shaded out. John Bell’s able team headed by John Asher on chainsaw and Mark Garth driving the hydraulic handing machine did in hours what would have taken our usual work-parties weeks. It was a very successful and satisfying operation even though much of it was done on a very wet day. The Plan’s strategy is to leave the rest of the railway cutting for a year to recover and for us to assess whether there have been any major problems with the key species. So this winter we move our attention to the embankment near the deserted medieval village of Wolfhampcote. 26 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Some firm unknown to John stripped the embankment’s track bed of its railway ballast in 1993. It did take a few years for the bed to recover but it has had the benefit of giving us grasslands in different stages of succession and some areas are now a superb habitat. Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Speedwell, Wild basil, Grass Vetchling and many other wild flowers now flourish here and support a strong colony of Green Hairstreak and Grizzled Skipper - though Grizzled Skipper didn’t do very well here this year (2005). In other areas scrub species Hawthorn and Bramble are now starting to encroach and it is time to take action. It should not take long to clear with a suitable tractor-mounted cutter but the scrub species will have to be treated with a herbicide to prevent re-growth. The aim for this area is to stabilise the grassland once it has been cleared of scrub. The problem is how to do this without man management. If scrub is removed the rabbit grazing will hold its re-growth back to a certain degree. But is this enough? John the farmer has suggested that we could graze it with stock. We have resisted this idea because the rabbits until recently have been enough and there are many problems in getting the right balance when grazing with cattle or sheep. We hope that this work will ensure that the site continues to hold strong colonies of butterflies, and it is hoped that some individuals will venture further afield. If we can interest other landowners along the old railway in improving areas of suitable habitat we may be able to help them re-colonise areas that have been lost. Anyone wishing to help with scrub clearance and other conservation work would be very welcome to join our work parties. Please contact Phil Parr. A summary of this last year’s records showed Grizzled Skipper had quite a poor year on the embankment, perhaps due to its greater exposure to the poor spring weather, but strangely enough Green Hairstreak did better here than in the cutting.

On our guided butterﬂy walk on 15th May this year the following were seen: Grizzled Skipper

2 seen on embankment 16 seen in cutting

Green Hairstreak 22 seen on embankment 9 seen in cutting Brown Argus

6 seen We don’t usually see many but this year has been the best to date

Dingy Skipper

1 seen This was the biggest surprise. Last seen in 2001. Prior to that, we have to go back to 1994. This latest sighting is very interesting because it poses the question: are they are breeding on the site? If they are then the numbers must be very small which is probably why they are not seen on our survey visits. If this is true then for a colony to survive in such low numbers is very encouraging. 27 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Newbold Grounds This site includes another part of the old, dis-used line of the Great Central Railway and is south of Wolfhampcote on the Warwickshire/ Northamptonshire border. Grizzled Skipper were found on the site some years ago by Mike Slater and I did a follow up survey in 2004 and found that they were still there in small numbers. The landowners attended our Grizzled Skipper workshop in May and as a result they were happy for us to survey more of their land on this farm. Part of the old line is a cutting, but many years ago it was planted with various conifers and the sides are much enriched with nettles and bramble and as it is rather shaded it does not hold many butterflies. The Grizzled Skipper survives at the north end of the cutting where it runs out to a small embankment. This area is used as a popular clay pigeon shoot, but with careful management this should not present too much of a threat to the colony, and may indeed help it survive. Nearby field margins and banks run down to a small tributary of the River Leam and this area supports a colony of Marbled White, while the fields to the west side of the old line have a large area of set-aside where ground nesting birds are monitored by the RSPB. This area has a very large colony of Small Heath. In 2005 Chris Johnson and I carried out a habitat survey and will offer the land owner advice on future management. During the spring Mike Slater, Jane Ellis and I walked much of the old line between here and Wolfhampcote and were pleased to find occasional Grizzled Skippers so the opportunity is there to improve habitats and create more colonies along the route. These sites are private so please do not visit independently. Fenny Compton “Tunnel” This site, owned by British Waterways, is a quite steep, south-facing bank approximately 600m long by 200m wide. At the bottom of the bank is the Oxford Canal. Many years ago the canal went through a tunnel (hence the “Tunnel”) but it was only seven foot wide and caused serious hold-ups to the canal traffic as boats meeting each other could not pass. In the late 1860’s it was opened out to create the bank we see today. It has been a good butterfly site for many years but now like so many other sites has a serious problem with scrub invasion. The key species here is the Grizzled Skipper. In October 2004 Jane Ellis and I met BW’s ecologist Paul Holton to investigate ways of maintaining some grassland. Unfortunately Paul moved to another post before much progress was made. In June 2005 Jane met ecologist Penny Foster on site. One of the ideas we put forward was to create a circular walk using the tow path along the bottom of the bank and reopening an old path along the top of the bank to return. Grassland could then be managed as part of the path maintenance program. An old kiln is a major feature on the 28 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

site and its restoration could form part of a heritage/access/conservation project which could benefit the grassland and butterflies. We are told that BW is looking to attract more people to use its land for informal recreation as well as look after those in to boating and fishing, and may look kindly at this sort of scheme if funding can be found. Penny is to check with BW’s engineers whether removal of some of the Hawthorns will present them with problems of stability of the bank and we have received some aerial photos to help us to produce a detailed site plan so we can show where the key species occur. In 2005 Chris Johnson and I surveyed the site in May, July and August. We found 2 Grizzled Skipper in May but numbers of other butterflies during the year were very low indeed and we haven’t seen Marbled White since 1999. We must make more progress in 2006. Time is running out for this site. Draycote Water Our training Workshop led by Tom Brereton, from BC Head Office, to assess habitat change using the drop disc method was a great success and we now have sufficient knowledge to put it into operation. All we need is the equipment. Jane Ellis also did a talk on “Timed Counts”. A guided walk around the Sailboard Graveyard to see how the Grizzled Skipper colony was faring followed the workshop. I saw at least four and I gather Tom saw a further four on the other side of the paddock. This is very encouraging as to see this number in one visit confirms the colony is doing quite nicely. We had some keen photographers on the walk and they were able to get some superb shots of Grizzled Skipper. We were also very pleased to discover a couple of grass snakes.

Photograph © Phil Parr 2005

Photograph © Steven Cheshire 2005

No Grizzled Skippers were seen this year on the other side of the reservoir at Draycote Bank. I was pleased to ﬁnd signs of White-letter Hairstreak larval damage in one or two Wych Elm leaves along the old bridle road that are surviving the devastation caused by Dutch Elm Disease. It shows the butterﬂy was still present even though we didn’t see any.

Above: Small Copper at Draycote Water.

Above: Grizzled Skipper at Draycote Water. 29 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Chris Johnson and Val Hill attended Severn Trent’s open day in July, supporting our cause by manning a table and talking to members of the public about butterflies that could be found at Draycote. The Mayor of Rugby attended the event and spent quite a long time talking to Chris and Val about butterflies in the Rugby area and in other parts of Warwickshire. Val managed to give the Mayor a copy of our butterfly book. Unfortunately the proposed guided walks had to be called off because of rain, but they felt that the day had still been very worthwhile. Malpass Site – Rugby Cement We continue to monitor this excellent site which holds Green Hairstreak, Grizzled Skipper, Marbled White and Small Heath, and each year we hold two work-parties to manage the remaining grasslands.

Photographs © Phil Parr 2005

We would be grateful for more help on these occasions, so if you are feeling like getting some fresh air you would be welcome to join us on our next session on Sunday morning 12th February. Give me a call if you are interested.

Above: Forester Moth at Ashlawn

Above: Grassland management at Ashlawn Cutting

Above: Blackneck Moth at Ashlawn

Ashlawn Cutting – Rugby – a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust site Cyril Cleaver and I run work-parties here as part of the Rugby Group of the Trust. These are held on Sunday mornings. Proposed future dates are 26th February and 5th March so ring me if you are interested. The key species here is the Forester moth which we saw in low numbers in the late spring, but many other species do well including a well established colony of Marbled White. Phil Parr 30 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

A Spring Visit to Switzerland by Bill Adams

A Spring visit to the Bernese Obarland again produced a long list of butterfly species. No less than six Ringlet species with especially good views of the Swiss Brassy Ringlet, the Alpine and the Common Ringlet. We were also lucky to get a close view of the Small Tortoiseshell laying eggs on Stinging Nettle, some twenty or thirty eggs. Two butterflies, the Swallowtail and the Small Apollo, were a fine sight along the trail from Murren to Grutchalp, this is always a good place for sightings. The Green Hairstreak, Large Copper and Black-veined White brought the total count to twenty-two species. Bill Adams Species List 03-06-05 to 21-07-05 Alpine Heath Alpine Ringlet Black-veined White Dewey Ringlet Green Hairstreak Heath Fritillary Large Blue Large Copper Large Skipper Mountain Fritillary Orange-tip

Pearl White Ringlet Scarce Large Blue Small Apollo Small Blue Small Tortoiseshell Sooty Ringlet Swallowtail Swiss Brassy Ringlet Swiss Small White White Spotted Ringlet

Illustrations © Bill Adams 2005

Warwickshire’s Butterflies Warwickshire’s Butterflies can be obtained by sending a cheque for £7.00 (£5.00 plus £2.00 postage and packing) made payable to Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch to: Keith Warmington, 30 New Street, Baddesley Ensor, Atherstone, Warwickshire, CV9 2DW. 31 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Magazine co-editor’s ﬁrst year in the ﬁeld... by Debbie Hibbitt

I have always had a keen interest in walking in the countryside and wildlife, but it wasn’t until after meeting Steve Cheshire in the latter half of 2003 that I first became interested in butterflies. I had previously noticed the odd fluttering in the garden at home but had never really appreciated their beauty, amazing life cycle and sadly short lifespan. Furthermore I had never been able to identify much more than the “Cabbage” White (as it was always known to me as a child), Red Admiral and Peacock. Steve has had more than a passing interest in butterflies for getting on for a decade and has devoted a vast amount of time and patience to photographing them and producing a detailed and educational website (www.britishbutterflies.co.uk). During 2004 I accompanied him on numerous outings into the countryside and I began to see for myself and learn to identify the variety of butterflies that are resident in the UK. After a year of observation, numerous amateur blurred shots from my not-too-ideal-cheap digital camera (mainly of lovely flowers after said butterfly had long flown off), and status as “photographer’s assistant” to Steve, for 2005 I decided that “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and invested in a more suitable digital camera. I soon learned that a great deal of patience, stealth, and khaki combat-style gear is required - wearing shorts and exposing bare legs when up to your knees trying to photograph Green Hairstreaks in gorse bushes and White Admirals on Blackberry bushes can be quite painful. Wearing bright pink girly clothes or red ski-jackets is out of the question and I am now affectionately known as “Jungle Jane” when kitted out for a day in the field.

Photographs © Debbie Hibbitt 2005

In the spring we went on various local walks and frequented Ryton Wood and I started off by photographing Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Wood Whites, Commas, Brimstones and the like feeding on the Spring Orchid and Bluebell ﬂowers. I had a ﬂeeting glimpse of the Purple Emperor soaring high in the trees later in the year at Ryton Wood and managed a few shots of Marbled Whites which fortunately settle on vegetation at a much more suitable level for snapping. Silver-washed Fritillaries were

Above: Wood White at Ryton Wood 32 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Above: Green Hairstreak at Wolfhampcote

also seen – the males proving very difﬁcult to photograph as they never seemed to settle in their search for a suitable mate.

Photographs © Debbie Hibbitt 2005

Having become a member of Butterﬂy Conservation at the beginning of the year, in May we attended an organised day out with the Warwickshire branch at Draycote Water and Wolfhampcote railway cutting. At Draycote Water we saw and photographed Grizzled Skippers, another species that I was not at all familiar with, but very delicate and pretty with their grey and white markings. A very pleasant afternoon was then spent at Wolfhampcote with an abundance of Green Hairstreak, more Grizzled Skippers, and a sighting of a Dingy Skipper.

Above: Dark-Green Fritillary at St David’s Head

The highlight of the year for me was the end of May when we had a holiday on the Norfolk Broads and were very fortunate to see a handful of Swallowtails at Hickling Broad basking on the reeds in the sunshine. A little difficult to photograph perched precariously on the boardwalk trying not to fall off into the water, but nevertheless a challenge! The following day was dull with little sunshine following rain overnight and we were not expecting to see much at Martham Broad during our Sunday morning stroll. However Steve just happened to stop where he spotted some Pink Campion flowers and to our delight we found a perfect Swallowtail low down in the reeds trying to keep warm and obviously not about to fly off anywhere. A wonderful photo-shoot ensued with us camouflaged amongst the reeds whilst folk sailed gently past in their boats on the Broad. In June we had our main holiday in Pembrokeshire with the intention of spotting Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillaries and Silver-studded Blue. Once again, Mother Nature surprised us when we visited St David’s Head on two occasions and discovered the Dark Green Fritillary instead. These also proved a challenge to photograph, wading up to our necks in bracken for the very few seconds when the hot-blooded males would actually settle. A visit to Skomer Island with very close encounters with the breeding Puffins and seabird colonies, although not butterfly-related, was the icing on the cake for me and my photographic exploits. We also spotted Small PBFs in Pembrokeshire and in the Brecon Beacons en-route home. Right: Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary at St David’s Head

33 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Photograph © Debbie Hibbitt 2005

Above: Swallowtail at Martham Broad

Further visits were also made to Ryton Wood and Wappenbury Wood in search of White Admirals which proved very elusive and difficult to photograph - if only I was a foot or so taller to try and capture them as they always settled too high up in the trees dancing about on the leaves as if to taunt me. On our final holiday in October in Exmouth, Devon we expected to see very little in the way of butterfly sightings as it was so late in the season. We did get a very brief glimpse though of a Clouded Yellow flitting about in the Autumn sunshine. Unfortunately it shot off over the bright red, sheerdrop, Jurassic coastline cliff - naturally we weren’t inclined to pursue it for photographic purposes - and so our butterfly photographic expeditions ended here for 2005. My first year has been very rewarding and I have been lucky to have seen and photographed many of Britain’s less common butterflies when originally I would have been happy to manage a snap of a Red Admiral basking on a flower in my own back garden (which I did manage - see below!). I look forward to 2006 when difficult decisions will need to be made concerning holiday destinations and target species and the challenge will be set for Steve and I to beat our personal rarity sightings from 2005. I have become quite addicted to wildlife photography and competition between us for the best shots is now rife! Not to mention of course the quest for photographs and more material for articles in my new role as magazine co-editor… Debbie Hibbitt

Above: Red Admiral basking on garden Rudbeckia

34 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Photograph © Debbie Hibbitt 2005

The summer continued with visits to Glapthorn Cow Pastures in Northamptonshire, Grafton Wood in Worcestershire and Otmoor RSPB Nature Reserve in Oxfordshire where I had read an article in the RSPB magazine about Brown Hairstreaks being present. At Glapthorn we spent a pleasant day hunting in the Blackthorn bushes for Black Hairstreak and were rewarded with several sightings and a few good photographs. Our first visit to Grafton Wood in August proved extremely Above: Brown Hairstreak at Otmoor RSPB Reserve successful with sightings of 20+ different species of butterfly including a couple of Brown Hairstreaks and was so enjoyable that we returned two weeks’ later to photograph more Brown Hairstreaks and the Brown Argus – yet another first for me. The visit to Otmoor also proved successful in that before we had even got out of the car we spotted a Brown Hairstreak basking in the sunshine in the wild hedgerow surrounding the car park - for once it proved willing to pose for some lovely photographs. Typically though, as it goes with “butterfly hunting”, this was the only one we saw all day!

The Warwickshire Garden Butterﬂy Survey 2004 by Margaret Vickery

I am very pleased to report that there was a signiﬁcant increase in the number of Warwickshire garden recorders in 2004. A more reliable picture of the state of Warwickshire’s garden butterﬂies emerges when the number of records increases. Thank you to all those who sent in records. Even though there was no special Warwickshire form this year, please keep up the good work and send in your records for 2005.

When compared with 2003 all the most widespread garden species showed declines in 2004, although that for the Peacock was only 1% (see table). However, 2003 was an exceptional year, due to the good summer weather. If the 2004 data is compared with that of 2002 only Large and Small Whites show signiﬁcant decreases. Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell both visited more gardens in 2004.

Above: Holly Blue

Above: Painted Lady

The position is much more complex for the 10 species making up the less widespread group. Three species: Brimstone, Green-veined White and Gatekeeper visited more gardens in 2004 than in 2003 but less than in 2002. Two species: Common Blue and Painted Lady visited less gardens in 2004 than in 2003 but more than in 2002. Orange Tip, Holly Blue and Speckled Wood have all steadily decreased from 2002-2004, while Meadow Brown has shown a steady increase. Holly Blue may have reached the bottom of its cycle in 2004, it will be interesting to see what has happened in 2005. The continuous decrease in Orange Tip visits may be due to the cold, wet spring weather we’ve had recently, while the decline in Speckled Wood visits may be a result of the 2003 drought. The rarer, or least widespread garden butterﬂies were also variable, with both Small Copper and Ringlet showing considerable increases in garden visits in 2004 compared with 2002 and 2003. Small Skipper was slightly down when compared with 2003 but showed a 9% increase over 2002. Large Skipper, however, fared very badly in 2004 with a 12% decrease when compared to 2003 and 13% when compared with 2002. 35 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Other species to be recorded in Warwickshire gardens included Marbled White, Small Heath, Essex Skipper, Clouded Yellow, Wall Brown, Purple Hairstreak and White Admiral. The number of species visiting any one garden in Warwickshire ranged from 2 - 21, with 10 -14 being the most usual. Many more members grow nectar plants (86%) than grow larval foodplants (57%). I was surprised that only 83% grow Buddleia, although as I’ve just spent 2 hours cutting off the dead heads, perhaps I shouldn’t be! It’s the only way to get continuous ﬂowering but extremely labour-intensive. Margaret Vickery

Results of the Warwickshire Garden Butterﬂy Survey 2002-4 % gardens recording presence of species Species

2002

2003

2004

Large White (see left)

100

Most widespread Species Small White

Red Admiral

Small Tortoiseshell

100

Peacock

Brimstone

Green-viened White

Orange-tip (see left)

Common Blue

Holly Blue

Painted Lady

Less widespread species

Comma

Speckled Wood

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Small Skipper

Large Skipper (see left)

Small Copper

Ringlet

Least widespread species

36 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Butterﬂy Conservation in Hungary by Mike Williams

Links between Butterfly Conservation and Hungary date back to 2003 when a group of us went there on a butterfly tour. Our partners in organising the trip were a small Hungarian based travel organisation called Ecotours who had only previously run bird watching trips. To say we were impressed with what we found would be an understatement, with over 100 species of butterflies and birds during our 2 week stay and an incredible 250+ species of moth. It was not just the diversity of what we found, but the sheer quantities of Lepidoptera that impressed: literally dozens of Purple and Lesser Purple Emperors along a woodland ride in the Bakony Hills; over 100 Rosy Footmans in the moth trap one morning; hundreds of Silver-studded Blues mud puddling along the side of a stream in the Aggtelek national park; countless numbers of Silver-washed Fritillaries in the Bukk Hills. All this, plus increasingly scarce species like Common and Hungarian Glider, Pallas’ Fritillary, Scarce and Dusky Large Blue. We returned home well satisfied with our trip. Our time in Hungary and our conversations with Gabor Orban from Ecotours and others made us only too aware of how this fantastic diversity was under serious threat. With Hungary about to join the European Union, just how much of this unique natural heritage was likely to survive the Common Agricultural Policy, new road building and economic development that would inevitably follow? Lepidoptera would almost certainly become an early casualty. The seed of an idea had been sown. The number of active butterfly and moth enthusiasts in Hungary was tiny, levels of awareness of the richness and importance of the country’s Lepidoptera seemed almost non-existent and there appeared little specific habitat management for invertebrates taking place. Was there a way that Butterfly Conservation in the UK could play a role? One immediate thing we could do was encourage others to follow in our footsteps and visit Hungary. Perhaps, if we could encourage ecotourism from Britain this might help to safeguard some of these very special places. Encouraged by the success of our trip, Ecotours decided to incorporate butterfly tours as part of their regular programme and, with our initial assistance, they began to advertise in the ‘Butterfly’ magazine. This has proved very successful and an increasing number of butterfly enthusiasts from the UK have now received the “Hungarian Experience”. Our growing links with Lepidopterists abroad developed on the back of a series of successful International Symposiums, meant that Butterfly Conservation nationally was receptive towards taking a more European-wide perspective. All this effort eventually was to culminate in the establishment of Butterfly Conservation Europe earlier last year. We had maintained our links with Ecotours and it seemed that the time was now ripe to take our previous discussions one step further. Could we give practical expression of the ideas of partnership inherent in the development of Butterfly Conservation Europe by working together to develop a conservation project in Hungary? This past Summer was the opportunity to put these ideas to the test and in July, again with assistance 37 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

from Ecotours, Simon Barker, John Reeve and myself revisited Hungary. On arrival, we were introduced to Safian Szaboles from the newly-formed Hungarian Lepidopterists Society who had agreed to help us in setting up a suitable project to furthering the conservation of butterflies in Hungary but within the capabilities of BC members from the UK. Our plan was to visit two national parks: Aggtelek a very well established national park in the east very close to the Slovakia border and the much newer Orseg NP in the west which borders Slovenia. At both locations, we met various National Park staff at both ranger and senior officer level and all were very enthusiastic to work with us, offering their time and resources. The Director of the Aggtelek NP was particularly positive, explaining that cuts in his budget meant that there was now limited funding available for new research projects of the kind envisaged. He felt that he might be able to use the fact that a group of enthusiasts from the UK were planning to assist in this as a good argument to convince Government of the importance of the area for Lepidoptera and strengthen the case for more funding. Initially, we had thought to focus our attention on just the one area but, such was the response, that we came up with the idea of two projects, each running a week at a time but for the consecutive weeks allowing people to opt for either of the two weeks or join in for the full fortnight. The work itself will be very varied. In Aggtelek, we will be working near the village of Gomorzollas on the fringes of the national park. This area, which is partly managed by the Hungarian Bird Society, acts as a buffer zone to the national park proper. Generally, its butterfly and moth populations are poorly known but certainly our brief visit this year gave us a flavour of its potential. One key species that we will be particularly looking at is the Anomalous Blue, which only occurs in this region of Hungary, but we will also be doing more general recording and monitoring. One problem habitat wise is that the absence of grazing has meant that some areas in recent years have been managed by burning and one aim will be to compare the density and diversity of butterfly species between burnt and unburnt areas. This information is simply not available at present and the Bird Society has no way of assessing the impact of their management on a range of important species such as Large Copper, Osiris Blue, Reverdin’s Blue, Large Tortoiseshell, Purple and Lesser Purple Emperor, all of which occur. In Orseg we will be mainly working on species of Large Blue, although again there will be opportunities for more general distribution mapping. Three species of Maculinea occur in the national park: Alcon Blue, Dusky Large Blue and Scarce Large Blue, all of which are endangered at a European level. Part of the Kerca Valley, where we will be principally working, has been the focus of a MACMAN recapture project which will help investigate the movement of the various butterflies within the meadow system and the optimal distance of habitat patches in good condition for management purposes. Other important species which occur include Scarce, Large and Purple Edged Copper, Brown Hairstreak, Nickerl’s Lesser Marbled and High Brown Fritillary, Dryad, Large Chequered Skipper, Tufted Marbled Skipper, Eastern Pale Clouded Yellow. Both projects will culminate in the production of a report on our work to be presented to the respective National Park Directors. In both locations, we shall be staying in rural guesthouse accommodation associated with the national park. Rooms will be shared, mainly 3-4 people to a room with all meals provided for us. Since our return we have been putting the finishing touches to the project and have now agreed our final programme. In addition to our work on 38 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

butterflies, we hope at both locations to do some moth trapping (and a bat watch at Aggtelek) and there will be free time for other activities. The Aggtelek National Park boasts the largest underground cave system in Europe which we can visit. At Orseg a day trip to Vienna is a possibility. For those staying the full two weeks, there will be an overnight in Budapest with a sightseeing tour of the city. Dates are now agreed as Sunday 23rd July - Saturday 5th August 2006 (Week 1: 23-29 July, Week 2: 30 July-5 August). Cost for the full two weeks will be £820 and for either week £470. This price includes all food, accommodation, transport and required equipment, but excludes the costs of flights and extras like excursions and insurance. Flights to Budapest these days are very reasonably priced. We flew Easyjet from Bristol for £40 return. We are looking to take a team of 10-12 people each week and if you are interested in the project please get in touch as soon as possible. We shall be spending fairly long days in the field and you will need to have average levels of fitness. Experience of mark and release work or butterfly monitoring and recording (eg. butterfly transect work) would be an advantage but this is not essential. People who are able to commit for the full two weeks are particularly welcome but if you are only able to come for a single week that is also fine. Most important is enthusiasm, combined with a desire to do something worthwhile and make a contribution to butterfly and moth conservation in Hungary. A brochure providing further details will be available shortly. Mike Williams

Butterﬂy Monitoring Scheme (BMS) Report for 2004 A brief resumé of the report produced by CEH Monks Wood

The Butterfly Monitoring Scheme was started back in 1976. The total number of sites in the scheme for 2004 was 134. (134 in 2003). Data received electronically from Transect Walker software. 47 transects (54 in 2003). As a result of the generally poor summer weather of 2004, numbers of many species of butterfly might be expected to have been rather depressed, but this was not generally the case and 2004 proved to be an average year for butterflies and almost as good as 2003. The warm dry May may have benefited the young stages of some species reducing the effect of the poor weather later in the season. Since the inception of the BMS in 1976 a general pattern in species trends has been: a) Increase in the abundance (and distribution) of generalist species as they have benefited from warmer temperatures. b) In contrast, habitat specialist species have suffered badly over the same time period. In 2004 however, habitat specialist species faired relatively well, 39 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

continuing an upward trend that has been apparent since 2000. c) Since 1976, there has been a significant trend towards earlier appearances for both spring and summer generations of bi and multivoltine butterfly species. The rate of change is more marked for spring species than those flying later in the season with the mean date of flight periods being 5 days and 3¼ days per decade respectively. These trends in the phenology of British butterflies are consistent with trends found in a range of taxonomic groups (birds, flowers, trees) from many regions in the northern temperature zone that suggest that climate warming is having a profound effect on the timing of naturally recurring events. Of the 50 species for which overall indices of abundance were calculated: 23 (30 in 2003) from 2003 to 2004. 26 (20 in 2003) from 2003 to 2004. 1 no change. No species produced a highest index in 2004. However there were two species that scored their second highest indices since 1976: • Adonis Blue 1st generation. 1984 being the highest. • Silver-washed Fritillary. 1976 being the highest. Spring Species improved Of the fifteen species which either fly in the Spring or have their first generation in the spring all but two (Dingy Skipper and Brown Argus) showed an increase, although the increases for first generation of Large White, Common Blue and Wall were extremely small. These increases are in contrast to 2003 where most of these species declined, and probably reflects the good summer weather of 2003, which would have resulted in improved breeding success of many of these species. Brimstone showed a substantial increase in both Spring ( 59%) and Summer/Autumn ( 43%) flights taking indices from a fairly low figure in 2003 to a relatively high figure in 2004, especially in the Spring. Holly Blue showed a substantial increase in both Spring ( 49%) and an amazing increase for Summer ( 260%) compared to 2003 figures. This is quite strange, as judging from the patterns of ups and downs of the cyclical Holly Blue, it seemed likely that this butterfly would have experienced a further drop in 2004. Common Blue showed no change for first brood but second brood index of 2003 to well below average.

40 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

43% from the high

A good year for Fritillaries Four of the ﬁve violet-feeding Fritillaries increased in 2004 from 2003. Dark Green Fritillary 40% on 2003. Third highest index since 1976 Silver-washed Fritillary 64% on 2003. Second highest index since 1976 Pearl Bordered Fritillary 21% on 2003 Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary 29% Photograph © Steven Cheshire 2005

The Small Tortoiseshell has shown large fluctuations in recent years. Numbers were high in 1997, but plummeted the following two years to produce the lowest index in 1999 since 1976. Low numbers caused concern amongst butterfly enthusiasts and there was fear that a parasite, Sturmia bella (Meigen) (Diptera: Tacchinidae), discovered new to Britain from specimens reared from Peacock pupae in 1998 (Ford et al, 2000), may have a serious effect on this species in Britain. However since the low of 1999 numbers of Small Tortoiseshell increased gradually and in 2003 a high index was produced again (6th highest since 1976). In 2004 the index dropped by 39% to produce an average index. The parasite is now well established in southern England (Baumgart et al, 2003) and was recorded in Wales in 2003 (John, 2004). This Tachinid fly is widespread and a common parasite of Nymphalidae in continental Europe. A poor year for migrants In early to mid-February 2004 an influx of Painted Ladies was reported all across southern England and also in Wales. Smaller numbers were reported in March. This might have heralded another good year for this species but although index remained high the numbers did not materialise. In general counts were highest at western and northern sites. Smardale Gill in Cumbria again produced the highest count with 142 recorded on transect counts. Red Admiral index dropped dramatically by 75% from 2003 producing its lowest index since 1991. Clouded Yellow index was also lower than 2003. Relatively small changes amongst Satyrids Gatekeeper 20% on 2003 giving it a fairly high index (ranking 8th) Small Heath 10% on 2003 well above average index (ranking 11th) Ringlet 24% on 2003 giving it still a high index (ranking 5th) Wall Brown 1st 02% Wall Brown 2nd 23% - 3rd lowest since 1976 Meadow Brown 05% on 2003 but still has an above average index

41 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Spring counts % change compared with 2003 Orange Tip 19% Rank 6 (12 in ‘03) Index high Small White 51% Rank 22 (25 in ’03) Index low Large White 08% Rank 24 (22 in ’03) Index low Green-veined White 122% Rank 22 (22 in ’03) Index average Brimstone 59% Rank 5 (19 in ’03) Substantial increase This is very much in line with Warwickshire ﬁndings. 2nd generation % change compared with 2003 Small White 08% Rank 10 (07 in ’03) Index above average Large White 10% Rank 10 (10 in ’03) Index above average Green-veined White 00% Rank 9 (09 in ’03) Index above average Brimstone 43% Rank 10 (Rank 24 in ’03) Substantial increase Again, this is very much in line with Warwickshire ﬁndings. Other species Small Skipper Large Skipper Dingy Skipper Grizzled Skipper Green Hairstreak Small Copper 1st Small Copper 2nd Brown Argus 1st Brown Argus 2nd Holly Blue 1st Holly Blue 2nd White Admiral Red Admiral Painted Lady Peacock 1st Peacock 2nd Comma Speckled Wood Marbled White Gatekeeper Meadow Brown Small Heath Ringlet White-letter Hairstreak Wood White Small Blue Purple Hairstreak

20% Rank 13 (17 in ’03) Index average 02% Rank 17 (15 in ’03) Index average 03% Rank 24 (23 in ’03) Index low 11% Rank 20 (24 in ’03) Index below average 62% Rank 20 (26 in ’03) Substantial increase 70% Rank 11 (21 in ’03) Substantial increase 17% Rank 12 (07 in ’03) Index above average 18% Rank 25 (21 in ’03) Index low 16% Rank 11 (10 in ’03) Index above average 49% Rank 09 (11 in ’03) Index above average 260% Rank ? (17 in ’03) Big increase 23% Rank 20 (20 in ’03) Index average 75% Rank 18 (01 in ’03) Big drop. Index below average 83% Rank 07 (02 in ’03) Big drop. Index above average 27% Rank 06 (15 in ’03) Index high 02% Rank 17 (13 in ’03) Index average 22% Rank 03 (01 in ’03) Index 3rd highest since 1976 11% Rank 04 (02 in ’03) Index high 15% Rank 15 (13 in ’03) Index average 20% Rank 08 (11 in ’03) Index high 05% Rank 11 (10 in ’03) Index above average 10% Rank 11 (13 in ’03) Increase to above average 24% Rank 05 (01 in ’03) Index high Insufficient data. Warwickshire saw further declines in 2004 Insufficient data. Warwickshire saw good increase in 2004 Insufficient data. Warwickshire saw slight decrease in 2004 Insufficient data. Warwickshire saw good increase in 2004

Conclusions It is rather remarkable that Warwickshire records for the above species bear out the findings of BMS. It also proves that our recorders are very accurate in their identification skills and deserve high praise for this and their dedication. Well done everybody. 42 Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

Warwickshire Branch Committee Margaret Vickery Chairman, Membership Secretary Kenilworth Area Liaison Ofﬁcer 3 The Deer Leap, Kenilworth, CV8 2HQ

t: 01926 512343 e: margaret@kworth71.freeserve.co.uk

Mike Slater Butterfly Conservation Officer Coventry Area Liaison Officer 149 Norton Leys, Rugby, CV22 5RS

t: 01788 335881 e: mike.slater@warwickshire.pnn.police.uk

Richard Lamb Education Officer, Stratford Liaison Officer Stratford Butterfly Farm, Swan’s Nest Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 7LS

t: 01789 299288 e: sales@butterﬂyfarm.co.uk

John Liggins Treasurer, Nuneaton & Bedworth Liaison Ofﬁcer 42 Manor Park Road, Nuneaton, CV11 5HR

t: 024 7673 t5227 e: john.liggins@ntlworld.com

Heather Warmington Branch Meeting Secretary 30 New Street, Baddesley Ensor, Atherstone,CV9 2DW

t: 01827 715873 e: heather@warmies.co.uk

Keith Warmington Vice Chairman, Branch Butterﬂy Recorder, North Warwickshire Liaison Ofﬁcer & Field Trip Organiser 30 New Street, Baddesley Ensor, Atherstone,CV9 2DW

t: 01827 715873 e: keith@warmies.co.uk

David Brown Moth Conservation Ofﬁcer Warwickshire Branch Moth Recorder Jacksons Lawn, Charlecote, Nr. Warwick, CV35 9EW

t: 01789 840295

Phil Parr Deputy Conservation Ofﬁcer, Rugby Area Liaison Ofﬁcer 174 Hillmorton Road, Rugby, CV22 5AW

t: 01788 578272 e: phil.parr@nt-2000.co.uk

John Reeve Solihull/Sutton Coldﬁeld/Birmingham Area Liaison Ofﬁcer 172 Stroud Road, Shirley, B90 2LA

t: 0121 744 3869 e: johnreeve@ic24.net

Steven Cheshire & Debbie Hibbitt Magazine Editors 85 Grasmere Crescent, Nuneaton, CV11 6EB

t: 07870 598691 / 07814 035363 e: steven@stevencheshire.co.uk e: debbie.hibbitt@v21.me.uk

Regional Development Ofﬁcers Jane Ellis 15 Morrison Park Road, West Haddon, NN6 7BJ

t: 01788 510695 e: jellis@butterﬂy-conservation.org

Dr Jenny Joy The Croft, Off Haygate Road, Wellington, Telford, TF1 2BW

t: 01952 249325 e: jjoy@butterﬂy-conservation.org

43 Butterﬂy Conservation Warwickshire Branch Magazine

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