The Suffolk Argus
March 1998
Butterflies in
Shingle Street Saturday, July 5th 1997 by Paul Gilson Eight members carried on to the tiny and secluded hamlet of Shingle Street to have their lunch followed by the walk led by James Mann. A chance encounter with a family of Stoats crossing the road in front of my car whilst driving towards the car park was a sight worth remembering. Any chance of seeing a wide range of butterflies on this beautiful part of the Suffolk coast had diminished slightly by the presence of a breeze. The butterflies that were about would keep low down in the sometimes sparse vegetation. The walk started by heading north towards the southern tip of Orfordness Spit, at all times trying to avoid stepping on the rare flora the exists on this part of the coast. Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Essex Skipper and Peacock were encountered, keeping low down to avoid the breeze. Cinnabar Moth and a Black-tailed Skimmer Dragonfly were also seen. Now walking south past the Shingle Street cottages we stopped to admire a partly overgrown allotment which was sheltered and contained many butterflies including Small Tortoiseshell, Large Skipper, Small white and Small Copper. Unfortunately these butterflies would soon be in for a nasty shock. A Corn Bunting was heard and then spotted sitting on an overhead electricity cable in the distance. This again was another hightlight of the afternoon for some of the parry it was the first encounter with this bird. On our way back to the car park we again stopped to gaze down at the allotment. The allotment looked rather different this
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Suffolk 1997 by RichardStewart (County Butterfly Recorder)
Small tortoiseshell (Aglaisurticae) time. An elderly gentleman had been at work with his scythe cutting down the grass and wildflowers that once existed. The gentleman explained that he did not want the seeds to blow into the other half of the allotment where his vegetables were. Many of us understood his point of view. On an afternoon when so many of the butterflies we had seen were in the allotment it seemed sad that this little haven for them had been lost, for this year anyway. Apart from that we had enjoyed a pleasant walk in a lovely unspoilt area of the Suffolk coast. Thanks go to James Mann for leading the walk on this occasion.
RedAdmiral (Vanessaatalanta)
Early records included a Small Tortoiseshell (Peter Steggall-Tuddenham Road, Ipswich, 17th February) and a Brimstone (Mrs. Spurgin - Upper Layham, 28th February) but the first half of the season will probably be best remembered for the dreadful June weather which produced a low pressure record for a single month, and led to comment from a Brandon garden about no butterflies between June 6th and July 1st (Mr. Evans). Over 160 new tetrad records underlined a good year for the Orange Tip and Glynnis Crouch's record from St. Olaves on 17th April was the earliest in her garden since 1947. John Dolman recorded a stunted male Orange Tip no bigger than a fingernail in the King's Forest on 14th May and another early species, the Holly Blue, was seen in good numbers but, as I predicted, the second brood was disappointing and this species is almost certainly over its cyclical peak and will be reduced in numbers for several years. The Green-veined White had a superb year with over 260 new tetrad records but the Green Hairstreak was probably the success story of the early months with 25 new records, a phenomenal increase for a butterfly with limited distribution. It has now been recorded in four sites well within Ipswich, including the garden section of Homebase at Warren Heath (Steve Goddard). Brimstones were in good numbers initially but very few records have reached me for the later emergence, possibly because of the June weather affecting development. The proposed Dingy Skipper survey foundered because, like several species, it emerged earlier than the planned meetings though I found a new, small colony at Wordwell. It has only been recorded from three tetrads since the survey started and one location worth a close study in 1998 is Barnham Cross Common, where it hasn't been recorded during the survey. In future
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