The UTB Black Hairstreak Group
20th June
Tom Dunbar reports:
The excellent weather conditions for the first week of the black Hairstreak flight season has enabled members to survey many sites in the UTB area. Our BHS Champion Stuart Hodges states "So far we have seen the B.H.S. at 18 sites. One of these is a re-discovery, last seen in the 1987.at a site now belonging to the Woodland Trust. The butterfly has been located at a minimum of  5 new location's. And of course we have to emphasize the explosion of number's that is taking place, which gives the chance to re-discover colonies not seen for many years."

Sightings have tailed off this weekend partly due, no doubt, to the poorer weather encountered. However, the butterfly is perhaps nearing the end of its flight season.

Should you see the BHS in the coming days please report your sightings to Stuart at :
stuart@thegreen40.fsnet.co.uk  or telephone 01296 730217

Also ensure to maintain a record of all butterfly sightings for submission to Jim Asher at the end of the season.
 

13th June 2004

Tom Dunbar reports:
I set out with the intention of finding new sites for Black Hairstreak today. I focussed in the Piddington area with a good deal of success.

Dave Wilton looked at Piddington Wood on Saturday and found 3 at two separate spots. This work by Dave is very significant in that it confirms the suspicion that the butterfly is indeed resident here. I visited on Sunday and found three individuals at two separate points one being different to Dave's. I feel that this wood is in desperate need of major management for both Black and Brown Hairstreak. However I have now seen both Black and Brown Hairstreak species here in the last twelve months.
 
Widnell Lane is due to host a new Asylum Centre on MOD land. It also hosts a Black Hairstreak colony! I confirmed as much today with 3 sighted on the roadside. The area is perfect BHS habitat. Again I have seen evidence of both Black and Brown here. The MOD land surely holds significant numbers but of course is totally inaccessible. We could consider a major recruitment drive for surveyors once the AC is open!
 
Adjacent to the railway line at Piddington is another Brown Hairstreak site I discovered in recent years. A visit there today resulted in sightings of 5 Black Hairstreaks. This constituted a second new Black Hairstreak site for the day! I also had a useful conversation with the landowner who was very interested in conservation matters.
 
A meadow near Ludgershall was another Brown Hairstreak site which I felt might hold Black. Indeed I saw one individual which made it another new site.
 
To summarise I recorded Black Hairstreak on four sites today, three of which are new to the database.
 
I feel this year, being a bumper year for Black Hairstreak, is a wonderful opportunity to survey for new sites. I do not imply that the butterfly is necessarily moving on to new territory. Piddington Wood is a case in point. There are historical records for it being there but numbers were perhaps so low in previous years to make a sighting improbable. This year's numbers have reversed the situation.

Should members have any time this week please email Stuart Hodges or Tom Dunbar for suggested sites that need surveying.

You gotta get out there!

Saturday 12th June survey for Black Hairstreak in the Greater Finemere area.

Report
Photos by Simon Woolley

Fifteen people, including a number from Hampshire and Cheshire, joined us in our Black Hairstreak survey. Our target was to see how many discrete colonies we could find.
A sub group from our party arrived early and reported 3 sightings at Oaktree Farm Bridge. This confirmed the sightings at this location last year which had flagged this up as a new site.
This subgroup went on to survey a private woodland in the area with a known resident Black Hairstreak colony. Time only allowed a very small area to be visited but this delivered 20 BH.
At the appointed 11am starting point a dozen people met up. One of our number departed to survey a number of woodland sites to the west. He later reported seeing 10 BH. The remainder of the party set off. A sheltered stretch of hedge was chosen on the Hewins Wood bridleway to counter the prevailing gusty wind. This was productive in giving us sightings of 19 BH.
Hewins Wood to Finemere Railway Bridge produced another 7 specimens. Some of our keener photographers remained in this area and missed the 9 BH at the railway bridge.
The prevailing gusty wind got the better of us at Finemere Wood Edge with a zero count despite a small number being seen here last season. However other species were present, notably Small Copper and two Painted Ladies and an emerging Marbled White.
The party then decided to set off for Rushbeds Wood and the adjacent Laplands Farm. We were joined here by reinforcements, two of whom from Hampshire were seeking their first BH sightings. Another member popped in to ask us to nominate another site that needed surveying. He returned some 90 minutes later from Piddington Wood with the news that he had located 3 BH there. This is a highly significant record as the butterfly has not been seen there for some years.
Six specimens of BH were seen at Rushbeds Tramway and also 1 Clouded Yellow.
The final location was the Laplands Drovers Lane. This sheltered spot gave us the welcome headache of identifying a group of hairstreaks flying around a stand of Elm. We eventually agreed that all individuals were indeed Black Hairstreak and not newly emerged White Letter. The lane produced 10 specimens.

The field trip was deemed a huge success. It was organised at short notice using email and the UTB website as a rallying call. We hope to repeat this method in the future for other species. Keep your peelers peeled on the website at: http://www.lepidoptera.dsl.pipex.com

The total haul of Black Hairstreak for the day was in excess of 84 butterflies at 12 locations.
 


Photo by David Ferguson

Black Hairstreak 2004 Flight Season
Our Black Hairstreak Champion Stuart Hodges reports that the butterfly is on the wing in the UTB area. Numbers were seen in Whitecross Green Wood on Sunday 6th June with other sightings in at least one other wood since then.
Please report any sightings to Stuart at: stuart@thegreen40.fsnet.co.uk  or telephone 01296 730217.

On Wednesday a total of 45 were seen at 3 sites in the Greater Finemere area. This included 33 at one location.

It must be stressed that many members see this butterfly but fail to report sightings. This results in an incomplete picture of the current status of this endangered species.

Get out there and please submit your records. They can make a difference!
photos by Jim Smith