The SuffolkArgus
Biodiversity &Suffolk Branch .fromour ChairmanJamesMann
October 1996
In 1992 ar the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Grear Britain and over 150 other nations signed up to rhe Rio Convention on Biological Diversity, the buzzword for chis is BIODIVERSI1Y. The concept is ro prevent the continuing erosion of existing species and habitats and co reverse this decline by bringing about a sustainable and stable climace for all endangered species and habitats . The Government is fully committed to this objective and has taken up the challenge set by the Biodiversity Action Plan Steering Group Report produced in 1995. To succeed it is necessary for statutory government bodies,local authorities and the private/voluntary section co work together. le has been decided chat this will be achieved at county level with national coordination. In June of this year, the 'Action for Wilalife in East Anglia' was published giving guidance on the way forward for Ease Anglia. I believe their opening statement sums it up well: "Our environment is already for poorer than the one in which our grandparents grew up. We carinot alww our chilaren and grandthilaren to inh~rit a countryside where birdsong is a novelty and wi/,dlife is only found on a few reserves. We must act now to keep what we have and restore what we have wst for fature generations to enjoy".
Silver-studdedblue (Plebejusargus)
12
Catfield Fen N .N .R. Sunday 30th June 1996 bySteven Goss Fifteen hardy souls made the trip to Catfield on a rather cold and windy morning in the hope of seeing Britain's largest native butterfly, the Swallowtail, and to learn more about the habitat and management of this important Butterfly Conservation reserve. Our guide was Roland Rogers, chairman of Norfolk Branch, who began by showing us an aerial photograph of the whole site, making it easier to appreciate the area of reed beds, sedge beds, alder carr woodland and open waters chat make up the reserves' 58 acres. We set off through some woodland to an area of open sedge which is cue on a three co five yearly cycle and sold for thatching. Then through more woodland and along the edge of a dyke (where the mosquicos were particularly vicious) to a clearing with young buckthorn trees. Here we found numerous Brimstone caterpillars superbly camouflaged on the leaves of these young trees. As;the trees were only waist high, photography was easy. We then made our way back to the car park via a slightly different route. Sightings of butterflies so far comprised just two Large Skippers, although we had also seen about a dozen species of moth including the rather noteworthy Pinion-streaked Snout, plus dragonflies and damselflies including a Black-tailed Skimmer. With rain forecast for the afternoon we thought we had better make use of what time we had by exploring the other end of the reserve which is much more open and where I had seen Swallowtails only a few days earlier in similar weather conditions.
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Thankfully, the sun did appear a little and so coo did the Swallowtails, neccaring on various plants along the edge of the dykes. Considering it was the end of June and nearing the end of their main flight period, they appeared in immaculate condition and there were plenty of opportunities for photography. At times, they appeared in pairs which gave us a chance co compare the different sexes - the only real difference being that the female is larger and some of us watched a courtship flight over one of the dykes which was truly:a sight to remember. Other butterflies seen were just one Meadow Brown and one very tatty Brimstone which was co be expected on such an overcast day. We decided that it would be pointless going on co Horsey Gap as planned because there simply would not be any early Dark Green Fritillaries out, especially given the terrible weather we had endured throughout June so, after visiting Catfield, we decided to call it a day. Our thanks must go co Roland Rogers for giving us his time and experience to help. make this a-memorable day.
Swallowtail(Papiliomachaon)
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by Roy Bedford
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