Suffolk Garden Butterfly Survey - Richard Stewart

Enclosed with this issue of the SUFFOLK ARGUS is a double-sided questionnaire relating to garden butterflies in Suffolk. This is an area of recording within the county that has not received separate, specific consideration and I have been given a Bursary by the Suffolk Naturalists' Society (SNS) to conduct this survey during 1994.

Obviously, I am hoping for as many returns as possible so that a meaningful report can be prepared. It is also important to cover all areas of Suffoik and different locations, types and sizes of gardens. Can I emphasise that returns from town centre and suburban locations are particularly welcome; our own suburban garden in Ipswich has, as an example, so far been visited by 18 different species, which is nearly one third of the national total. it is hoped that all of the questionnaires can be completed but part returns will also be welcome.

Of particular interest will be sightings of Speckled Wood and White-letter Hairstreak. The survey should also prove interesting to note 1994 numbers of Holly Blue and Painted Lady. There is a section devoted to butterfly-attracting plants and another to predators, plus an opportunity to make a comparison with previous seasons.

The questionnaire will be distributed to members of SNS and the Ipswich and District Natural History Society as well as Suffolk Branch of Butterfly Conservation. This will provide a potential return of 900 forms.

For any of you who may be wondering about the Butterfly Conservation national garden survey, I would like to make it clear that this survey will not conflict with its aims. The prime objective of my survey is to record, during one year, the butterflies visiting Suffolk gardens, whereas the aim of the national garden survey is to discover the 'perfect butterfly garden' through countrywide observations over a longer period. For this year only, existing and new participants wiil be asked to record their garden observations on two forms; one for Margaret Vickery and one for me. I hope the questionnaire is self-explanatory but please contact me if further clarification is needed. Richard Stewart

Suffolk Branch strongly supports this local initiative as an extension to the national survey. Jt is interesting to see that Richard has extended the return deadline to allow for late sightings, in view of his article on late butterflies in the.first issue! One thing's/or sure, we can't get enough information about Suffolk's butterflies so please do all that you can to help ensure the success of Richard's survey. Ed.

••BUTTERFLY WATCHING•• A BEGINNER IN SUFFOLK GOES ON LEARNING ...

1990 was the year of the Hairstreak. After three years of Butterfly watching I had actually heard of Hairstreaks. They certainly live up to part of their name 'streak' for speed of movement! We were told of a kical site for Green Hairstreak at North Warren and went to investigate. A large area of gorse and broom was an ideal site. Careful searching of likely-looking bushes proved fruitless. Then a sudden dark flash of wings led us to a thistle1 And to our first Green Hairstreak. It really is bright green on its underside, the only green British butterfly. This one had a broken line of white dots across the lower wing It was tiny, and so much like the green foliage that it was very difficult to see until it moved. We discovered that they rest with folded wings and that the dark brown upper side is only glimpsed in flight. We later learnt, and saw, that the males position themselves on gorse or broom flowers at the outer edges of their breeding territory and dart out to investigate passing insects, to do battle with other males,· or to court the females.

About six weeks later, in July, in the Kenton Hills woodland, we suddenly saw about a dozen small butterflies dart at speed across a path at the srnmy edge of the wood. They flew up into surrounding trees and through binoculars we were able to identify the white line, a bit like a lightning flash, on the underside of the mid-brown wings. They were White-letter Hairstreaks. Last year one conveniently came down to nectar on a bramble just be~ide us and Michael was able to take a really clear photograph which is one of the highlights of our special album. (Strymonidia w-a/buml - Ed).

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Purple Hairstreaks eluded us, though we scanned the upper canopies of many oak trees, until a visit to Minsmere. On a warm July evening we at last saw eight or ten high up in the oak trees, enjoying snacks of sticky aphid honeydew from the leaves, or basking in the sunshine with their wings wide open. Like the other Hairstreaks, when they moved they moved at speed. We were surprised to see how pale the w1derside of their wings is - a pale greyish-buff, in contrast to the dark black/brown and purple of the upper wings. Binoculars were again an asset. But beware stiff necks! Purple Hairstreaks prefer the tops of oak trees and although they are reputed to come down to brambles to nectar we have never seen one do so.

It was i.n the third year of butterfly watching that we learnt to distinguish between the Small and Essex Skippers. These small pale golden-brown butterflies dart at speed through tall grasses and can fly sideways as easily as forwards! To a learner they look more moths than butterflies because of the way they hold their wings when at rest; the two forcwings point upwards in a V, while the hindwings are held parallel to the ground. We learnt that the only obvious difference between them is that the Essex Skipper has glossy black tips to the underside of its antennae while the Small Skipper has brown or orange. If you are adept at crawling through grass so skilfully that you can catch the Skipper head on then you will be able to identify them without any difficulty!

It was a relief when walking along a path woods and the high cornfield, we saw a butterfly gliding ahead settling on a bramble at brightly coloured with black and brown see how ragged the were. In my butterflies had smoothComma", said Michael. Comma?" "Look! Can shaped white mark wings?" And sure The Comma promptly favourite butterflies. later the same day, between conifer hedge boundary of a large bright orange of us and then eye level I Its wings were mot1led and l was amazed to edges of the wmgs experience edged wings. "It's a "Why is it called a you see the c01mnawhen it closes its enough, I could. became one of my

Living in coastal Suffolk we quickly discovered that this area has only two species of hlue butterflies; Common Blue and Holly Blue. But there is an exception. There are still a few sites where the Silver-studded Blue is managing to hold on and we made a special journey to Martlesham Heath to look for it. There were plenty of Common Blues but we suddenly realised that among them were some smaller blue butterflies. When one of the smaller ones settled on the purple bell-heather flowers we could see that it had deep brown bands across the top of the upperside of its hind wings and inside the white edges of all four wings. It dawned on me that the Common Blue male butterflies don't have the brown markings. The silver studs were much harder to find. In fact they seemed more like a band of white inside the band of orange on the underside of the lower wings, contrasting with the white star-like flash of the Common Blues. The females of both species are brown not blue, and are very similar, but I am gradually learning to sort them out from their undersides. To our joy, in succeeding

years, we have found five other sites nearer to Minsmere where there are Silverstudded Blues.

One of the main lessons we have learnt about butterfly watching is to expect the unexpected. Nearly every time we go out something happens which makes us say "That's a bonus!" Like the day at Kenton Hills when, totally unexpectedly, our first White Admiral sat on a bramble at knee level and stayed there to let us see it. We didn't even know there were White Admirals in our part of Suffolk. Or the day when clouds of Graylings flew up between the gorse bushes at North Warren and some kept settling on my blue dress. Then there was the red-letter day, again at Kenton hills when we saw our first and only Humming-bird Hawk-moth nectaring on the red campion just next to us. It was hovering close to the campion flowers, as humming birds do, but not settling, with extremely rapid wing movements that made the wings almost invisible.

Each butterfly season we seem to learn a lot more. We hope you get as much delight from your butterfly watching as we do. JennyKelsey

SUFFOLK SHOW

1-2 June 1994

The Branch will be attending the County Show. Running a stall at these events needs as many helpers as possible the more literally the merrier_ Come along, help out and have some fun selling wildtlowers and membership !