Suffolk Argus 1, Jan 1994

THE SUF'FOLK BRANCH CONTACTS

SUFFOLK

WANTED Anyone interested in helpingwith Branchactivities. We particularly need a Membership Secretary and an Honorary Treasurer. The

duties are more satisfyingthan onerousand trainingand equipmentis availableto whatever level suits you. Contact Andrew Phillips(below).

ARGUS

BRANCHORGANISER Russell Edwards, 19 Ipswich Road, Holbrook, Suffolk IP9 2QY (0473 328779)

NEWSLETTEREDITOR Steve Goddard, 47 Colchester Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 3BT (0473 252598)

OPERATIONBUTTERFLY Diane Firmin, 11 Rowan Close, Stanway, Colchester, Essex CO3 SQJ (0206 331183)

CONSERVATIONOFFICER (MOTHS) Roger Kendrick, c/o BSc Conservation Mgt, Otley College, Otley, Suffolk (0473 785543)

CONSERVATTION OFFICER(BUTTERFLIES) Richard 'Stewart, 63 Belstead Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP2 88D (0473) 688725

COMMITTEEMEMBERS Adrian Hart, Wood Cottage, High Comer, Butley, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP4 SAQ (0394 450994) Alan Johnson, 28 Medway Road, Ipswich, Suffolk JP3 OQH (0473 715701) Michael & Jenny Kelsey, 25 Prospect Place, Leiston, Suffolk IP16 4AL (0728 830975) Michael Bramley, SS Hamlet Drive, Colchester, Essex _CO4JSR (0206 862908) Ron Bridle, Brook Hall Cottage, Grays Lane, Wissett, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 0JT (0981 681392) Janice Pritchard, 89 Leopold Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 4RN (0473 718137)

CHAIRMAN Andrew Phillips, Swallow House, Long Road West, Dedham, Essex CO7 6ES (0206 322908)

PRESIDENT Howard Mendel, c/o Ipswich Museum, High St, Ipswich, Suffolk IPl 3QH (0473 213761)

COUNTYRECORDER(BUTTERFLIES) Steve Piotrowski, 18 Cobham Rd, Ipswich, Suffolk IP3 9JD (0473 711856)

Published by the Suffolk Branch of Butterfly Conservation (The British Butterfly Conservation Society Ltd.). Reg. No. 2206468. Registered address: Tudor House, Quorn. Loughborough, Leics LE12 8AD. Reg. Charity No. 254937. Head Office: PO Box 222. Dedham, Essex CO7 6EY. Tel. (0206) 322342. Edited by Steve Goddard. Printed by Greg Herbert & Sons. Logo Doug Hammersley Designed and produced by Andrew Phillips. © 1994 all rights reserved.

fJ1i.e !Newsfetteroftlie Suffo[l <Brandiof<ButterflyConservation

Branch Launch The new SuffolkBranch of Butterfly Conservationwas launchedon 30 October 1993 at the SuffolkButterflyConference held at Ipswich School (see article inside). It was an auspiciousoccasion,with a large crowd of people attendingto hear some of the latest thinkingon the conservationof butterfliesand moths. Many of the country's top experts were present, as well as the great and good from Suffolkand representativesfrom all the main Suffolk wildlifeorganisations. This last was most important,as one of the main objects of the new Branch(see over) is to cooperate as much as possible with the existingconservationnetwork in the county.Althoughit is importantto have specialist expertiseand enthusiasmto tackle particularproblemsfacing certain animals,plants and habitats,the forces destroying them are too powerfulto allow any of us the indulgenceof 'doing our own thing'.

Volume 1

The aims of the new Branch were set out at the inauguralmeeting, held at Ipswich Musewn on 21 June this year. They are: 1. To educate, inform and raise awareness of the decline of butterflies in Suffolk. 2. To identify key sites for butterflies & moths, monitor populations and encourage research. 3. To provide advice and assistance to, and to cooperate with, other local conservation groups, land owners and managers 4. To carry out practical conservation work, including input to planning and the creation and management of reserves

January 1994

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1tlJ7&7,l:Y'J?lt 771&S'lYJ?tJ'if? to the new Suffolk Branch of Butterfly Conservation !

May I first thank all those members who have been with us for up to a year now, and who may have been wondering what the new Branch was getting up to. The answer is: GETTING STARTED. Stay with us: for the best yet to be, we need you! The nucleus ofa committee (see back page) has now been set tip, and following a few, but very successful events this year, we hope during 1994 to have a programme of activities to appeal to everyone. From butterfly picnics to mothie barbecues, and from slideshows to country fairs, the year is already shaping up well, but we need your help. If you can give talks, want to lead a field tt:ip, like running stands at shows, can raise money or manage some aspect of the Branch's administration please contact me. This is our very first newsletter, and those ofus who are making up the current Branch committee hope that "TH£ SUFFOLK ARGUS" will become something a little more than just another piece of paper that comes through your letterbox. To begin with, although the focus of our interest and conservation activity is our beautiful butterfly heritage, the Suffolk Branch of Butterfly Conservation is above all a wildlife conservation group. We want to celebrate not just these angelic swnmer visitors, but every thing else that they symbolise for us: beauty, freedom and the .wonder - and threatened status - of the whole of the natural world. So we're going to be thinking too about caterpillars, and their foodplants. We're . going to discuss related issues of topical interest such as/arming.forestry and park management. Gardening will we hope become a regular topic. The world of moths, those sister lepidoptera, and their for the most part unrecognised attributes, will be a major emphasis for this new county group. We also want to feature articles on Suffolk itself, places to visit, its birds and wildflowers, and any other related subject that has a particular interest or fascination for you. If you love butterflies and Suffolk, you're already amongst the most sane human beings about, and your views matter - especially to your fellow Branch members. So please, make this your newsletter - do write to Steve Goddard, the Editor, with your news and views, comments and articles. If you've got a bee in your bonnet, let us know what type it is, and why and how it got there and what you propose or want others if anything to do. Steve has suggested some topics on the back page - but don't feel bound by the ideas mentioned - if you feel that water quality needs aerating (if you'll pardon the pun) let us all know about it. Here's to 1994 ! Andrew Phillips

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At our inaugural meeting in June I was pleased to accept the role of Branch Newsletter Editor. This being a first editorship, I thought I should sit down to clarify in my own mind what should be the objective of such a communication and I came up with the following:

'To support Branch aims by helping bring together members through activities and social events and to provide a medium for the exchange of information and ideas on any matters relating to wildlife conservation in Suffolk and in particular the protection of the county's butlerjlies and moths'. I hope you agree with this statement. If you don't, or feel it should be modified in some way, please let me know and we'll get it right. Any exchange of infonnation of this nature depends on regular input from members. Therefore, please contribute as much as you can and help make TH£ SUFFOLK AR6US a valuable part of the Branch scene. I would like to think that we can issue three magazines in a year to reach you in January, May, and September. Deadlines for printing will respectively, Xmas Eve, April Fool's Day and August Bank Holiday! Hopefully, you will already have many ideas of your own for the Newsletter but maybe the following will help: Memories - Good/Bad Butterfly Days/Sightings Butterflies & Moths - Questions and Answers Field Trips/Branch Events Review Favourite Spots Local Conservation Issues Favourite ID Guides/ID Tips What's About, Where and When? Photography Gardens and Gardening for Butterflies Butterfly & Moth Recording Wildflowers Other conservation topics which interest you If you all agree withthe issue periods then the next SUFFOI.K AR6US should be with you in May. Don't leave it 'till the last minute! Remember.it's never too soon to send in information, questions and articles, so I shall look forward to receiving your first communications long before Spring arrives. Steve Goddard

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CONTENTS

BUmRFLY

CONSERVATION

Book Reviews P,11id1t1t:

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Sttlingli,!d

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DEDICATED

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TO SAVlNG

Butterfly Conservation 1993. Ed. D Dunbar. Ill. V Baines. £12.50 If like me you are a soft target for gorgeously-illustrated books on natural history, waste no further time. This is a beautiful production worthy of any one's bookshelf. Valerie Baines has excelled herself with a series of Victorian-style plates featuring butterflies and their principal larval foodplants and nectar flowers, whilst the (minimal) commentary is provided by a number of for the most part unsung amateur experts, furnishing nuggets of information more often buried in the comprehensivity of dedicated textbooks. Every resident British butterfly is featured, plus some migrant and extinct species. They are categorised under general headings such as 'Butterflies in the Garden', 'Grassland Butterflies' and 'Vanishing Butterflies', making a pleasant change from the usual more scientific groupings. If I have a complaint to make it is that the prints themselves are so wonderful that they might have been offered in a folio together with the book. Maybe they will be. Otherwise my overall judgment is - congratulations, wish I'd done it myself ...

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Pan Books 1991. Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine. £5.99

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IUTTERFLIES·-,.NO

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Last Chanceto See In.case anyone doesn't know, Douglas Adams is the author of 'A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'- intelligent, witty, an acknowledged master of the bathetic apercu - and self-confessedly quite unaware before writing this book of the accelerating toll of environmental destruction and extinct wildlife being exacted by Man on this planet. We have Mark Carwardine, the well-known author of The WWF Environmental Handbook (inter alia) to thank for Dougie's belated enlightenment, and between them the two have produced a very readable and comparatively light-hearted travelogue of the world's more threatened environments and wildlife. These range from Komodo Island and its dragons (how well do I remember David Attenborough's original Zoo Quest to that fabled isle) to Mauritius, home of the ex-Dodo and soon-to-be-late Pink Pigeon and Kestrel, via a number of other more or less exotic locations, all featuring animals that may no longer shortly be with us. It's a very good book of its kind, well written and amusing without losing sight of the tragic and otherwise depressing subject matter. Just the job for any of your friends who have not yet taken on board how late in the day it really is to save the planet. Andrew Phillips

WILD

Front Cover

Branch Launch

GloriousButterfliesand their Flora

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Welcome

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Contents

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Late Butterflies

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Common Blue Butterflies at Sizewell

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A Beginner's Guide to Butterfly Watching

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The Future of our Woodlands

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Butterfly Action Day 1993

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The Decline of Butterflies in Suffolk

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Book Reviews

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Note from the Editor

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Back Cover

Contacts

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THE SUFFOLK ARGUS Vo/ 1 HEADOFFICE: P.O.BOX222,DEDHAM, COLCHESTER, ESSEX, C076EY. lREPHONE0206322342 THEBRITISH BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION SOCIElYLTD. REGISTERED OfFICETUDORHOUSE, OUORN. ll:C!CESTERSHIR(. LE12SAO R[GISTEHEO IN 1:NGLM.tO No 2206468 REGISTEREO CHARITY Nn.254937

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Late Butterflies I have always been very interested in late sightings of butterflies but get the impression that this aspect of recording tends to get overlooked.Recently, I have been able to look through some of the more recent correspondence and recording sheets relating to the Suffolk Butterfly Survey, courtesy of Steve Piotrowski, and my thoughts were confirmed. Many observers added, with their sightings, a 'first seen this year'date, but hardly any gave a 'last seen' record. In fact, some of the excellent recording sheets finished around the end of September. One exception was at North Warren where Rob Macklin recorded precise flight dates, and in 1992, these included September 16th, (Green-veined White), September 26th (Small White), October 13th (Small Copper) and October 23rd (Large White). Such 'latest' sightings are reasonably straightforward in those species where the adult doesn't hibernate. Two other recordings from North Warren in the same year (Comma on October 10th and Peacock on November 8th) also seem reasonably straightforward but what about the one at Chippenham Fen, witnessed by Malcolm Wright and the Head Warden (Red Admiral on January 22nd1990) ? Early or late? A Red Admiral reported from Falkenham on December 5th, 1990 ('White Admiral' magazine: Summer 1991 p19) is of equal interest. I don't know the answer but,in the hope that it will be of help, here are my own records of late sightings for some Suffolk species ; Brimstone Speckled Wood

Large White Holly Blue Small Copper Small Tortoiseshell Comma Peacock

Red Admiral

September 28th 1992 on Ivy in my garden. October 4th 1993 a faded specimen on literally the last bloom of Buddleia outside the toilets at Minsmere; another, in much better condition, was at the start of the path opposite the toilets, which has a canopy of trees. I am sure that this second one would have been seen on later days. October 13th 1990 on Buddleia in my garden. October 20th 1990 flying near the Ivy in my garden.This is a late date but it was of course.during the 'Holly Blue Year'. October 27th 1984 landed on ·an orange peg bag in my garden. November 8th 1992 on purple erigeron in my garden but not observed feeding. November 11th 1988 on the lawn.windfall apples and willow in my garden. November 12th 1993 seen in the King's Forest.just past Culford, fluttering around trunks of very tall conifers and seen going inside a gap in the bark, then flying out again:disturbed from hibernation - or still seeking a suitable place? Bearing in mind that this is many weeks later than any other Peacock I have ever seen, I would assume the former. November 19th 1988 on my garden lawn.

To show how others can survive late in the year, here finally are two from' across the border': Swallowtail at Strumpshaw Fen on September 15th 1991-feeding on Buddleia and two Wall Browns at Cley on October 24th 1989 with a Small Copper nearby, all on a sunny roadside bank. I hope some even 'later' records will now come out of the files! Richard Stewart 3

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That's the history, what of the future? How can we prevent any further decline and which of our butterflies are in most danger today? The fate of the majority lies in the hands of fanners and landowners, including local authorities (and the Forestry Commission!). However, I feel we should be encouraged by the fact that many of the people who can influence the make up of our cmmtryside are keen to help ifwe can make a case and/or show them how! This we must do. Also, we must not m1derestimate our own individual contributions. From objecting to sensitive site development to making field observations, be it scientifically or casually, people who care can make things happen or stop them. If you don't know anything about it, or are W1surehow to help or where to start, why not come to the AGM on 26 March (see Events List), where the theme this year is Recording. Just in time to begin the new season !

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Make no mistake, the decline has not halted. There are still Suffolk butterflies in danger today. I would suggest that something like 6 species are vulnerable not least because they are already so difficult to find! We should all be aware of the status of the Silver - studded Blue, our adopted emblem, but what about Grizzled Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Brown Argus, and White - letter Hairstreak- and what is really happening to the White Admiral? It may already be too late for the Grizzled Skipper which was last positively recorded in 1979. The Branch would like to make a special effort in 199410 look for and record these 6 species in particular. Steve Piotrowski (see address on back cover) will be delighted to receive your sightings and we shall look forward to printing an article on them in a future Suffolk Argus. Good news or bad, we need to know. As champions of the reai countryside, we do not want to record the 22nd extinction in Suffolk. Steve Goddard

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Howard Mendel and Steve Piotrowski for their excellent book The Butterflies Of Suffolk (still available from Suffolk Naturalists'Society, c/o The Museum, High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IPl 3QH at £10 + £1 p&p) which provided a marvellous reference for this article. Many thanks also to Roger Smith, BBCS Conservation Committee Chairman and Habitat Survey Officer, for his interest and for providing other historical material.

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riJie©ecuneof Sufjofk,s(}Jutteif[ies

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COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLIES AT SIZEWELL There was a tremendous storm during the night of August 14th 1993, with spectacular lightning, unbelievable thunder and torrential rain. So how could fragile butterflies possibly survive? The next day we went for a stroll along the dunes at Sizewell at about 4.30pm, on a sunny and wannish afternoon, not expecting to see many butterflies, so did n't bother to take the camera. At first there were very few, but as we went along the path between the wire fences on the Sizewell B site we began to see Common Blues. The site on either side of the path has been re-seeded with grass and wild flowers. We were surprised to see quite a few Blues along the path but were quite unprepared for what followed.

For those of you fortunate enough to have been able to enjoy up to 40 species of butterflies in Suffolk as recently as the l 950's, it must be difficult to accept that a good year's watching in the 1990's will only yield a maximum of 31 - and this with no small amount of hard work and luck, together with the inclusion of the three non wintering migrants, (Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow). If you were butterfly watching in 1900, you could have seen a further 6 species; early in the century before, another 7. Yes, we have lost 21 species in Suffolk since the beginning of the 19th century and have the dubious honour of heading the national extinction list for the combined 19th and 20th centuries. How this has come about is open to much debate, but I am sure that no-one would disagree that changes in land use must be central to the cause. The effects of these changes were swift and dramatic in the years following the last war. Little harmful change in land management was evident until the 19th century when we began to notice the loss of some of the butterflies that used to thrive in the county. At this time, coppicing began to decline and game preservation developed, affecting Suffolk's woodland species. However, the 19th century was also the peak period in this area for the digging of chalk pits and quarries -favoured by Brown Argus and Dingy Skipper as well as the more common grassland species- although this did not stop the disappearance of most of our chalk downland butterflies before 1900. In more recent years many of these man-made habitats have also gone. The parallel decline of the working horse and the general move away from livestock to intensive arable farming led to a scarcity of wet meadows and pastures and the Marsh Fritillary became a casualty as long ago as 1904. The reclamation of large areas of the Brecks for arable during the rest of the century and the advent of scientific agricultural methods had a marked effect on heathland species. The Silver-studded Blue disappeared from the Brecks completely. Intensive arable fanning was accompanied by a massive afforestation programme during the 1940's and I 950's and the methods used contributed heavily to the demise of our woodland butterflies. Add to this the affects of myxomatosis on grassland species and the possible influence of subtle climatic change, and it is not difficult to understand how butterflies have declined to today's levels. 1.1

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At the far end of the pathway the dunes opened out, with a wire fence on the land side only. On either side of the fence were tall drying grasses and flowers - Ragwort, Bird's-foot-trefoil, Sheep's-bit Scabious, Harebells and Clover.The grass on the dunes was short, growing taller again by the sea, with more flowers on the little hillocks. We realised that there were scores of Blues, male and female, wherever we looked, resting on the grasses or nectaring on the flowers. We had never seen so many in one place. Crossing to the shingly beach we saw many clumps of Sea Holly and Homed Poppies, and these too seemed to be alive with blue butterflies, which flew up in clouds as we approached. It was an amazing sight. THI~SUFFOLK ARGUS Vo! I

By about 5.30 pm., as we began the return walk, we realised that the Blues were beginning to home in on the grasses, preparing to roost for the night. Every few feet there were clumps of grass with Blues in tens, twenties, up to fifties, roosting head down on the taller grasses.They would fly up as we passed and then settle down again. We reckon that in a half-mile stretch there must have been between one and two thousand Common Blue butterflies. It was a marvellous experience. We also saw one or two Meadow Browns, a few Gatekeepers, plenty of Large and Small Whites, a few Small Tortoiseshells, about fifteen bright Small Coppers and at least thirty Graylings, mainly on the Sea Holly clumps. Next year we hope to lead a walk along the Sizewell dunes, hoping for a repeat performance from the Common Blues.

Michael and Jenny Kelsey

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A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BUTTERFLY WATCHING

This delicate little insect is fast disappearing from Suffolk and it would be no exaggeration to suggest that on present trends, it could be the twenty-second of the fifty species of butterfly that used to live and breed in our county to become locally extinct. Indeed its hard to see how we might stop this happening. Already most of what used to be one of the finest stretches of lowland heath in Europe, the Suffolk heaths and sandlings, has all but disappeared under a tide of development. The Silverstudded Blue has gone with it, and the colony on Purdis Heath is the strongest of those remaining. Just a few years ago, the best area for the butterfly was Martlesham Heath - and one has only to go there today to see what fate awaits at Purdis. The colony at Martlesham is barely hanging on, submerged by new houses and associated human activity, bike riding and dog walking - it cannot be long before it vanishes altogether. Purdis is zoned for similar development.

"It's a Small Skipper I Marvellous position ! This will be a terrific photograph 1 Oh ! Missed !" "Come on Smokey. He's missed again. Let's not wait any longer". So Smokey (the dog) and I would meander along the path, hoping Michael wouldn't take too long over his pursuit of the Small Hopper or whatever it was called. Frankly, we were bored stiff, waiting for a photographer whose subjects took flight at the final moment. But one day when Michael caught up with us he said, "Look ! That's a G~tekeeper". I followed his pointing finger and there in front ofme was sheer beauty, wide open-winged. Bright orange, deeply fringed with brown; a black oval on each upper wing, with two tiny white dots on each black patch.I just gazed.I had no idea li~le butterflies could be so beautiful. For the rest of that walk I looked for flickering wmgs to show where a butterfly had alighted. The Gatekeepers were a joy. Skippers defeated me. They lived up to their name and were gone before I could focus on them. Blues also tended to move too quickly, though I could catch a glimpse of their colour. But then a Red Admiral settled on a Bramble flower immediately ahead of us - and I joined Michael in his hobby of butterfly watching. During the Spring following our retirement, I saw Small Tortoiseshells for the first time. Pic~es in books do not do justice to the bright mixture of orange background, mottled with black, yellow and a touch of white, fringed with tiny blue :1alf-moons inside barred grey and yellow (words don't do justice to the colour either!). That same Spring, we saw our first-ever Orange Tip - a white butterfly with orange tips to its upper wings. Unmistakeable. Why had I never noticed one before ? Then came the real excitement. In a patch of dead bracke~, new nettles and bluebells were two tiny c~pper-gold butterflies. They were too far away to look at them properly, but we had bmoculars.There they were-bright copper-coloured upper wings dotted and edged with black, and black lower wings fringed with copper. Flying jewels. That Spring and Summer held excitement after excitement - Peacocks, Painted Ladies, Wall Browns, Small Heaths (which refuse to.open their wings except in flight), Speckled Woods in Kent, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Commas, Graylings and Common Blues. We took a couple of little books with us to identify what we saw. There is a tremendous thrill in seeing a butterfly for the first time, tracking it down from its picture and finally identifying it. We began to learn a little about the different butterflies. We even began to recognise one or two by their flight - Meadow Browns slow and flapping, Comma and Red Admiral gliding, Skippers with their high speed. Then we discovered that in some species the male and female differ. Female Blues are bro_wn!Very confosing for a beginner. In some species males have dark scent glands; white females have more spots than males; and so on. We began to realise that different flowers attract different butterflies, and to learn about the flowers too.We

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What can we do to avert this tragedy ? Well, the Branch has been in preliminary discussions with Suffolk Wildlife Trust to see if it may be possible jointly to purchase the site. However, it is not certain that it will even be offered for sale, despite being designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). If we were able to bid for it, raising the money would present all the usual problems too. But the biggest worry of all is that even if we were to purchase, protect and manage it properly, a big enough task on its own, how could we safeguard it from the sheer pressure of the people who are projected to live in the new housing estates all around it? Quite clearly we are going to have to persuade the owners and the local authorities concemed (Ipswich Borough and Suffolk Coastal District Cow1cils) to allow us to create a sufficiently large reserve for this to be possible. One hopeful sign perhaps is that members of the adjacent golf club have already expressed their willingness to support such a move. Meanwhile we want to see that the site is kept in prime condition for the Silver-studded Blues and all the associated wildlife on this site for as long as possible. Most of our readers will know that almost every bit of land in Britain has been man-managed since the late Stone Age, and heathland is no exception. Without man's grazing animals and wood collecting, heathland would for the most part be woodland, as natural succession took place. So we are pleased to be cooperating already with the Suffolk Wildlife Trnst in working on this site with a view to achieving its lasting protection. Thanks especially this time to Steve Ba.mes, who had the unenviable job of painting the myriad birch stumps to prevent re-growth - well done Steve, and to the students (and master) of Otley College who produced such a splendid turnout and contributed to one of the best and most successful days conservation work most of us had ever been involved with. It was a grand way to begin the work of the new Suffolk Branch of Butterfly Conservation, and I hope we shall keep up this high standard. Andrew /'hi/lips THE SUFFOLK ARGUS Vo/ I

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be allowed to jeopardise hard-won wildlife refuges. Markets must be regulated and at the very least new private owners must be prevented from destroying known sites and encouraged to manage and create more wildifefriendly areas. Enforcement and administration of this will cost money, and this might cast doubt upon the economics of the sell-off anyway ... But we can do much better than this. The govenunent ought genuinely to put the interests of its citizens and their quality of life first, by foregoing the arguable and comparatively minute benefits which might accrue from privatisation, and instead encouraging both the new public forests and providing incentives for new productive woodland, perhaps on what is now inadequately described as 'set-aside' fannland? Better yet - why not make all the FC lands into National Parks and beef up the conservation and leisure interests ?

If you want to stay ideologically pure, you could charge people a modest fee for using these areas and thereby defray the expenses of managmg and maintaining them.

learnt that some butterflies were absent from Suffolk, for example Adonis and Chalkhill Blue and all the Fritillaries. When autumn came we could hardly wait for the 1989 butterfly season to begin. April 1989 gave us the joy of butterfly watching in Portugal, including our first-ever Swallowtail in a near-gale on the cliffs at Cape Vincent. Then back to England to begin recording what we saw, and to start building up a serious photographic record.

If any government wanted to do something just once for which posterity would thank them, this would be a wonderful opportunity. Just think, by this means you could more than double the amount of land protected from encroaching development and unsustainable exploitation, whilst expanding both timber production and leisure resources. It would be a marvellous step forward, cost no more than is already envisaged and really show that Britain meant what it said at Rio.

When Michael was a boy, his father told him that the only place in England where the Swallowtail existed was in part of the Norfolk Broads. So we took a day trip to the Nature Reserve at Hickling Broad and eventually saw our first English Swallowtails. How can one describe the thrill? They are much bigger than I had imagined, flying strongly against the wind, spiralling upwards in what seems to be courtship flight, and incredibly beautiful when they settle to nectar or rest. Michael took some good photographs of Swallowtails which obligingly basked in the sunshine. Three years later, not one settled long enough to be taken! A month later we saw our first Holly Blue. I didn't even know there was such a butterfly! We were delighted when we tracked it down in the book and discovered its name. We first found it by its pale blue underside, lightly dotted with black spots. Ours was a female, upper wings deep mauvy-blue with broad browny-black edges. The following year we saw male Holly Blues and learnt that their upper wings don't have dark edges. As the years have gone by the excitement of seeing our "first ever" species have continued. Butterfly watching is an enthralling occupation and one learns so much. The more we learn the more we realise how inuch lies ahead. We are greatly enjoying the superb book by Jeremy Thomas and Richard Lewington about British butterflies which is packed with infonnation. If you haven't begtm watching already, do start! If you have been watching for years, take a beginner with you!

Come on, let's lead the world, let's practise what we preach and set an example to nations now destroying their forests. Let's do the right thing - we can't afford not to. Andrew Phillips

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Purdis Heath scrub clearance Why would over thirty people tum out on a freezing Sunday morning in November to hack down birch saplings on a piece of apparent waste ground on the Eastern outskirts of Ipswich ? Well they did, and they achieved far more than was expected. In fact we cleared - and faggot bundled - well over an acre of land that used to be the favoured breeding area of what is now the strongest remaining colony of the Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus) left in Suffolk.

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A few do's and don'ts for butterfly learners: Do go with someone else. It's much more fun. Do take a book-a little handguide is useful. Don't take the dog - it will msh up and disturb your best butterfly just as you begin to identify it. Do take binoculars. It's amazing how useful they can be. Don't mind if you fail sometimes. We've got all the time there is for future attempts. Do enjoy your butterfly watching.

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Useful books:

The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland. Jeremy Thomas & Richard Lewington. The Mitchell Beazley pocket guide to butterflies. Paul Whalley. A handgwde to the Butterflies and Moths o/Brilain and Europe. John Wilkinson and Michael Tweedie. Jenny Kelsey

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It's a complicated matter, and can be looked at in a number of ways: for some it is the bolstering of the Exchequer through the sale of underinvested and inefficientlymanaged state assets, with the implication that private ownership and deregulation makes for market efficiency; for others it's the knockdown expropriation of public property for the benefit of sectional interests.. Maybe there's a bit of truth in both. This article merely wants to explore what may be the benefits and disadvantages of the proposed sellingoff of what used to be the Forestry Commission to private investors, and how this may affect the interests of British wildlife and the public at large. So to kick off - no less than two former directors-general of the Forestry Commission say that the sale of the country's publicly owned forests would , . ..., produce little immediate cash and reduce State income with the likely lieed for greater public expenditure on forestry in the future. 7

squeezed to the limit, I 00% output, all the time, rain or shine, hell or high water.

That's some condemnation, so let's look at the facts: the book value of the Forestry Commission's I. lm hectare estate is some £l.7bn. Actual receipts will probably total much less than half this amount. Some might wish to compare such a sum with the £55bn spent ammally on social security (or over £ 1bn per week). It is further suggested that increased state support to sustain the new private forestry interests will cost £40-50m per year by the millenniwn too. Hardly a case, it might seem, without some other rationale, for privatising the FC.

The future of our woodlands

rivatisation is one of those buzz-words from the eighties that means all sorts of things to different people - and this is not a political column, and I don't want to alienate any of our members, whether they think that in general it's been a good thing for the country, or not.

But does it do the job - and is it wellnm ? Well, the Forest Enterprise, as the timber production side is presently known, produces about 14% of the nation's timber needs. Also the National Audit Office recently criticised the Forestry Authority (which governs the Enterprise) for early felling, which they said lost the Exchequer £ 11m. So maybe we do need more forests and greater 'efficiency'. More forests certainly - but it's curious how this word 'efficiency' keeps cropping up, (literally in the case of agriculture). What does it mean, and how is it measured and by whom ? As far as one can gather, it's measured by economists, statisticians and accountants, in tenns of a kind of 'ideal productivity', delimited in money terms. So in theory, the land, its managers and the capital invested in them can be THE SUFHJl,K ARGUS Vo/ I

Strange, when it's put in such a way, most of us start to think that maybe the world doesn't work like that. Let me go further and suggest a hypothesis (we'll call it Phillips' Law if you like): 'When things are pushed to the limit there is less scope for flexibility, increased probability of breakdown and a reduction in quality' - of life in this case (economists call it welfare).

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forestry production have a lot to answer for - but in recent years, enlightened (again literally) 'multi-purpose' forest management (ie which takes into consideration landscape, access and wildlife as well as timber production) has seen a remarkable improvement in the situation. Now, the state forests of Britain are a refuge to many threatened species of wildlife and a source of recreation for millions. In tenns of butterflies and moths, it is estimated that perhaps a third of the most valuable sites for lepidoptera in the country are sited in these woodlands.

Thus in terms of forestry, Why not make The risk of privatisation, stands of fast-growth timber 'crowd out' light, and hence all the FC lands for those of us who care other plants and associated about such things, is into National wildlife, while machinery therefore that these breaks down, huge lorries Parks and beef priceless wildlife assets, charge down our roads and the last re1m1,mts of a up the any human pleasure in heritage that has been all walking the forest rides or but a1mihilated in the conservation even in the forester's job is twentieth century, will and leisure lessened, disappears or even fall prey _ to modern turns to displeasure. Further accounting. As interests? afield, fuel-producing nations ~----------' maintaining a diversity of become politically unstable and tropical trees, wide rides and coppice clearings forests are plundered wholesale. is 'uneconomic', private foresters will be encouraged to neglect or destroy You may think this goes too far, but if habitats in which butterflies, moths and anything it is an w1derstatement. all sorts of other plants and animals However, for the sake of discussion have survived until now. let's concentrate on the issues for wildlife conservationists. So what's the answer ? Well, as long as this govenunent continues in power, Maybe past govenunents and the privatisation is more likely. I said this Forestry Commission that was didn't article would not get political, so what get everything right. From tax havens other means are there to safeguard the for the wealthy encouraging block wildlife of our state forests ? planting of both lowlands and highlands, to the coniferisation of Let's take it in stages: First, the ancient woodland, the old ideas of privatisation of our state forests cannot THE SUHOLK ARGUS Vo/ I

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