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| 2008 Butterfly Season Review by Debbie Hibbitt and Steven Cheshire |
Once again our wildlife expeditions during the year were hampered by the weather and our sightings were “more by luck than judgement”. Nevertheless, we still visited a variety of our favourite wildlife reserves and some new ones and enjoyed the 2008 season. The highlights of our year were as follows.
March 2008
30th March was our first outing of the season on the Warwickshire Branch Walk at Pooley Fields near Tamworth. Quite a few people turned out on a rather grey and cold day but we were unable to find the target species of Dingy Skipper. All we could manage was a handful of Peacock, Comma, and Small Tortoiseshell and a quick cup of tea before calling it a day.
May 2008
May was undoubtedly the best month of the season, starting off with our Branch Walk on 11th May in the Wyre Forest led by Jenny Joy. A modest-sized group turned out and we had a morning walk with Jenny in “the pipeline” area and had no trouble finding the target species of Pearl-bordered Fritillary in the warm Spring sunshine. After lunch a few of us went down to the Dowles Brook area where we saw a few more PBFs before climbing back up the hill.
On the 18th May we attended another branch walk at the BC Bill Smyllie reserve at Prestbury Hill in Gloucestershire led by Mike Slater, another warm sunny day eventually, which produced a fair few of both our target species, the Small Blue and Duke of Burgundy. The aberrant form ‘gracilens’ was observed and photographed by Keith Warmington and Steve.
We ventured further afield into Gloucestershire following some suggestions by Ron Thomas, visiting Rodborough Common, Strawberry Banks and Oakley Wood. We did a little homework on the internet before visiting Rodborough and targeted an area known as Little London in the hope of seeing Duke of Burgundy. The sun appeared and so did the Dukes along with a few surprises - yet another aberrant gracilens form of the Duke of Burgundy and very early sightings for the year of Adonis Blue. Strawberry Banks also proved to be an excellent reserve with more Adonis Blue and Marsh Fritillary in the colourful meadows with blue Wild Colombine and pink Sainfoin flowers.
We also tried out our nocturnal skills and went to our first moth trapping night at Middleton Hall. Not really being into moths as yet, Debbie was less than keen to go already feeling tired after a long day at work. However, thanks to Val’s usual excellent culinary delights and the warm welcome extended to us “newbies” by the rest of the group, Debbie eventually had to be dragged away as she was still going strong joining in inspecting the traps at 2.30am, certainly an eye-opener for her! The moths were also going strong as it was a lovely warm evening and well over 100 species were recorded (don’t ask me to name and number them all though, I thought I’d done well learning about 20 - Debbie). A few hours later and we were back at Middleton Hall yawning... sorry helping, Keith and Heather out on our stand at the Birdwatching Fair.
June 2008
In June we visited Prees Heath in search of the Silver-studded Blue. The reserve is now well-established and we arrived by mid-late morning on a day with a mixture of sunshine and cloud. The local dog-walkers were immensely proud of their butterflies and were very helpful in directing us to the best parts of the reserve for the Blues. So by lunchtime, we had a few hundred photos in the bag as the blues were so numerous and cooperative whilst going about their daily activities amongst the heather. Having accomplished our mission by noon, Debbie came up with the mad suggestion of going further North to Great Orme’s Head in Llandudno to see if we could also see the northern Silver-studded Blue.
During a rather windswept walk on the summit of the Head we saw one rather worn blue battling against the elements along with a few Grayling (another sub-species specific to the Orm). We then drove around the bottom of the Head and walked back up a lower-level footpath and found a sheltered scrubby area with lots of blues including several mating pairs. A long day and a long drive from Warwickshire, but both places are well worth visiting as you will be guaranteed to see something.
July 2008
We had 10 days in Exmoor at the beginning of July for our target species of Fritillaries, especially High Brown. However the weather did its very best to spoil things and it rained practically every day, we even had the highest level of rainfall in the country - 62mm on one day! As a result we had very few sightings of High Brown Fritillary so the less said about this week the better (or should that be wetter?).
August 2008
On 10th August we went to Bernwood Forest & Meadows in search of the Brown Hairstreak as a reccé for a Branch Walk we were going to lead the following weekend - the first walk that we have led on behalf of the Branch. We saw several very fresh Brown Hairstreaks which posed nicely for photographs in between the sunny spells.
We returned to lead the walk on the 17th. 11 people attended including a couple from up-north who were attempting to see several species during their long weekend so we couldn’t send them home disappointed. It was a cool, cloudy day so we weren’t altogether hopeful, but eventually Debbie managed to find one resting in the blackthorn bushes which was just about close enough for everyone to get a good view and some photographs, and when the sun finally came out we found a few more in the meadows so everyone went home happy. Steve also managed to locate two eggs on suckering blackthorn bushes.
Amazingly we had fine sunny weather for the late Summer Bank Holiday and so we visited Minchinhampton Common/Swells Hill and Rodborough Common in Gloucestershire (all National Trust) and Watlington Hill (also NT) in the Chilterns. Swells Hill and Rodborough common proved excellent for Chalkhill and Adonis Blue including a single specimen of the aberrant form krodeli. Watlington Hill is close to Aston Rowant NNR so is good for Silver-spotted Skipper although it was a miserable grey day at first so we sat and watched the aerial displays of the Red Kite which were flying almost at eye-level. However right on cue, as the weather forecast had for once correctly predicted, at 4.00 pm the sun came out and all of a sudden one of the lower slopes of the Hill became alive with Chalkhill and Adonis Blues, and Silver-spotted Skippers whizzing about all over the place. We followed the remainder of the walk which produced some of the more common species including Common Blue.
October 2008
Our butterfly season ended with a visit to the Severn Valley in October. It was a warm sunny Autumn day, and although it didn’t produce much in the way of butterflies at this late stage of the season, Steve did managed to find and photograph yet another abberrant, this time a Small Copper with reduced forewing markings of the form obliterata.
So 2008 was an interesting year of abominations with the weather and aberrations with the butterflies - who knows how our butterflies will fare in 2009.
Debbie Hibbitt and Steven Cheshire |
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| Above: Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Wyre Forest. |
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Above: Duke of Burgundy ab. gracilens
at Prestbury Hill, Gloucestershire. |
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| Above: Female Silver-studded Blue at Prees Heath. |
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Above: Adonis Blue ab. krodeli
at Rodborough Common, Gloucestershire. |
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