Spring 2009
Butterfly Hotspots. Number Three: Rushmere Common. by Richard Stewart This is an important ‘green lung’ on the edge of Ipswich and although it includes a golf course there is easy public access. The main part is within tetrad TM 2044, but at its western edge it includes TM 1944. Access on two sides, north and east, is restricted by lack of car parking, and my own preference is to enter from Heath Road, near the hospital. Here a left turn takes you along a sheltered lane passing right through to the golf club building. Here on a sunny spring day, with the strong coconut smell of flowering gorse, you can quickly record many species, including the three whites, Peacock, Comma and Small Tortoiseshell, Orangetip, Speckled Wood in the shady copse, Small Copper and Green Hairstreak. The last two mentioned have strong colonies across the Common. Some central parts have extensive red carpets of sorrel and the Green Hairstreak uses the plentiful gorse and occasional broom for egg laying. On May 12th 1998 a combination of sunshine, peak of emergence and enough recorders, the Common produced very high totals of 369 Small Copper and 345 Green Hairstreak, the latter also seen nectaring on flowers or honeydew of oak, sycamore, hawthorn, elm and rowan. 32 Green Hairstreak were noted on the flowers of just one sunlit rowan. Further across the Common the large pond is good for dragonflies and the hedge of flowering hawthorn also attracts nectaring Small Copper and Green Hairstreak.
The central part of the Common also has abundant Small Heath but the Grayling, now a national priority species, is harder to find. I haven’t seen one at Rushmere for the past two years, but Steve Goddard had a ‘B’ total on July 27th 2008. Moving over towards the tall water tower you enter a lane with oaks and elms. This hedge has management specifically designed to help White-letter Hairstreak. With the ‘secret garden’ now disappearing beneath new housing the main problem in hairstreak spotting is finding somewhere more convenient than the acute angle along the lane. The view from the children’s play area is easier and offers more extensive views, but personally never feel very comfortable there holding binoculars. Along the lane Holly Blues can usually be seen and at its end the lane joins Bixley Drive, probably the most used access to the Common. Purple Hairstreaks can be seen around many oaks in July and it is also worth
Green Hairstreak by Douglas Hammersley
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