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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