Butterfly Conservation were contacted by a lady called Elise Harter a few weeks ago. Elise is a children’s author who has launched a creative writing competition to raise awareness of Butterfly Conservation.  
Children aged 8-11 (inclusive) are being encouraged to put pen to paper on the theme of butterflies and caterpillars.   There are two age categories: 8-9 years of age (inclusive) and 10-11 (inclusive).
Each story or poem must be a maximum of 400 words. Parents and teachers are kindly requested to send in entries on behalf of the children by email.  The stories will be uploaded to her website where the public can vote for their favourite. Entries will be accepted up to and including Friday 23 April 2010. The winners will be announced both on Elise’s website and also on BC’s main website. One winner in each category will be selected by the official judges, while a second winner in each age group will win based on the number of votes they receive.  
Participation is free of charge, but voluntary donations to Butterfly Conservation are being encouraged.  
We have supplied Elise with prizes, for the winners, including copies of Nick Baker's book, 'British Wildlife: A Month by Month Guide', free family tickets to Butterfly World, publication of the winning stories on our  website and  bundles of Insect Lore goodies, including a grow-your-own butterfly garden, huge floor puzzle and lifecycle butterfly soft toy.  Elise’s website is http://eliseharter.weebly.com

Monday 8th March 2010

Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (WCBS) to continue in 2010

Dr Martin Warren writes:  "We are delighted to inform you that we have decided to continue the WCBS again in 2010. Once again this will be a collaborative project with BTO and CEH. We believe that the roll-out last year was a great success with 763 random 1km squares sampled by over 600 surveyors.
The squares were recorded almost equally by BTO and BC volunteers, showing how important the partnership approach has been. The results have given us the first ever random sample of butterflies in the UK and have established an important new baseline from which to assess future trends. I hope you have had a chance to read the results in the latest magazine.
The attached feedback report (360KB PDF file, see HERE...) will be sent to all recorders in the next few weeks and posted on the UKBMS website. We would like to thank everyone who took part last year and especially the WCBS Champions who helped promote the survey within the Branches. We hope you will continue to survey the same squares in the same way as last year.
Our priority is to re-survey these squares for at least the next 2 years so that we can determine trends in the wider countryside and see whether they differ from transect trends. We also welcome new participants either to help re-survey old squares, or to survey new ones for the first time. As last year, we have little external support for the survey and the costs are being borne largely by Butterfly Conservation with a small contribution from Natural England and support of our partners in CEH and BTO.
However, the government agencies have expressed a strong interest in the results and are actively seeking funds for future years. At the present time, therefore, we have to run the survey as cheaply as possible, which means that our time to give support will be somewhat limited. We would also like to express our sincere thanks our central co-ordinator last year, Katie Cruickshanks, who did a wonderful job co-ordinating the survey at short notice. Although Katie left in January to take up work with a local consultancy , we have placed a contract with her to continue as the main contact. We hope this will provide continuity with last year as well as retaining her valuable experience in running the project.

Friday 5th March 2010

Fears grow for future of Britain’s rarest butterflies 

Figures for butterfly sightings in 2009 have raised fears that five of Britain’s rarest butterflies face a growing risk of extinction. Their numbers last year either continued to plummet or remained at near rock bottom levels.
Conservationists are particularly concerned about the Duke of Burgundy, which has reached new low points in each of the past three summers and is now at its lowest level since monitoring began. The butterfly, which 50 years ago was a common sight in woodland clearings, now has less than 80 colonies throughout the whole of the UK. Other rare butterflies that remained at very low levels in 2009 include the High Brown Fritillary, with less than 50 colonies, and the Wood White and the Lulworth Skipper, both of which are down to under 100 colonies. Another rare species, the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, had its second worst year in 2009.
Concern for the future of these butterflies follows analysis of data collected by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme from over 1,000 sites nationwide. The UKBMS is co-ordinated by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the charity Butterfly Conservation.
Experts believe that the extremely wet weather throughout the summers of 2007 and 2008, followed by the above average rainfall of July and August 2009, have accelerated a long-term decline in numbers. Heavy rain makes it hard for butterflies to survive.
And it’s not just the rare butterflies that are having a tough time. According to the new data, collected in the course of last year by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, some relatively common species including the Wall Brown, Small Skipper and Green Hairstreak also remained at very low numbers in 2009. The Small Tortoiseshell, which has suffered a serious decline in recent years, made a slight comeback.
The highlight of 2009 was the massive migration of Painted Lady butterflies, which originated in North Africa and arrived in vast swarms in early summer. At one point it was estimated there could have been over a billion Painted Ladies in the UK. However, the UKBMS figures indicate that this migration was not quite on the scale of the last big one in 1996.
The UKBMS statistics show a very modest overall recovery compared with the dire summer of 2008, which was the worst for 25 years. In addition to the abundance of the Painted Lady, some native butterflies also did well in 2009. These included the Green-veined White, Ringlet and Speckled Wood – all of which thrive in lush woodland areas and may have been beneficiaries of the damp but not particularly cold conditions.
Dr Tom Brereton, Head of Monitoring with the charity Butterfly Conservation, said: “We are particularly concerned about the Duke of Burgundy. At the start of the century there were about 200 colonies in the country. This number has now more than halved – and most colonies that remain are small. It is a serious situation.”
Butterflies are important as indicators, alerting us to underlying problems with the environment. If butterfly numbers are falling, inevitably other wildlife is in decline. 
The main factors causing the long term decline of many butterfly species include the loss of crucial habitats such as flower rich grassland and the intensification of farming methods. A lack of management is also causing problems in habitats such as woodlands.
Each year the UKBMS collates data collected by hundreds of volunteers nationwide. Dr Marc Botham, a butterfly ecologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology who analysed the results said: “The results show the enormous value of long running datasets in identifying environmental problems. We are extremely grateful to the many volunteers who contribute each year. Through their efforts a new milestone was reached in 2009 when the number of sites monitored passed the 1,000 mark for the first time.”

Tuesday 1st December 2009

Butterfly migration mystery solved

Scientists with the charity Butterfly Conservation believe they have solved one of nature’s long-standing mysteries – thanks to the help of the public.  
Every year Painted Lady butterflies arrive in the UK from North Africa and the Mediterranean. It has long been known that they breed here during the summer and also that they cannot normally survive our winters. What happens to these Painted Ladies as winter approaches was unknown until now.  
Scientists had been baffled as to whether Painted Ladies attempted to “tough it out” and died trying during our winters. Or was there a return southward migration to warmer climes, as is the case with Swallows, Cuckoos and Red Admiral butterflies? Part of the problem has been that, unlike these other well-known migrants, there was very little evidence of Painted Ladies flying south in the autumn.  
This summer was a bumper migration year with, at the peak, up to a billion Painted Ladies in Britain.  
Butterfly Conservation has been monitoring Painted Lady movements since the start of northward migration at the beginning of the year, with members of the public being able to report sightings online at www.butterfly-conservation.org. There has been a huge response, not only from the UK but from across Europe. An amazing 12,000 sightings have been submitted so far, with reports still coming in.  
Last month brought some particularly exciting reports. From the Channel coasts of Cornwall, Devon, Sussex and Kent sightings were reported of Painted Ladies heading straight out to sea towards continental Europe.  
Now reports have been received of butterflies arriving back in the Mediterranean and North Africa.  
Richard Fox, Butterfly Conservation’s surveys manager, said: “Several of these lucky observers saw more than one butterfly head out on its perilous voyage. This is exactly the evidence needed to lay this enduring mystery to rest. Painted Ladies do return southwards from Britain in the autumn enabling the species to continue its breeding cycle during the winter months”.

If any of you have been lucky enough to see butterflies flying out to sea we would be gratefullcould let us know by e-mailing the details to: webmaster@hantsiow-butterflies.org.uk.

Friday 13th November 2009

South Downs National Park

Our reserves at both Bentley & Magdalen Hill Down are in the new South Downs National Park area. Yew Hill isn't.   A note from the new park staff read....
"We have been informed that Hillary Benn's has this morning signed the designation order and confirmed the park's boundary."
The Sectretary of State's Decision letter and Hearing Report can be found on Defra's website http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/national-parks/south-downs/index.htm
Detailed maps can be found on Natural England’s website: <http://www.naturalengland.gov.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/new/southdowns/default.aspx>

Friday 30th October 2009

Marks and Spencer Copenhagen Patchwork

Martin Warren, BC Chief Executive, writes:  "Can I encourage you all to support this M&S initiative. If you follow the links you can get an idea of what they are doing to encourage sustainability and what BC will become associated with when we finalise our negotiations. We should get our links mentioned in all such initiatives.   Many thanks   Martin"

From the Head of Sustainable Business, Marks & Spencer - " We're trying to get M&S' customers and employees involved in calling for a strong agreement in Copenhagen this December to tackle climate change. We're creating an electronic 'quilt' allowing individuals to send a personal message of support and we'll present it to the UK Government before they head off for Denmark. It would be great if you could sign up too and then pass the message on, the more voices that are heard the more chance we have of making a difference!" http://plana.marksandspencer.com/you-can-do/climate-change/cop15

Sunday 2nd August 2009

LONGSTOCK PARK NURSURY - Report on visit by Lynn Fomison

On Sunday 2nd August I had the opportunity to chat to Peter Moore who is the keeper of the National Collection of Buddleias at Longstock Park Nursery.
Here are some of his top tips:-

• It is essential to clip off the faded flowers immediately. Peter estimates he spends 15 hours a week doing that! He suggests that it is best done on wet days as it is a dusty job on sunny days.
• It is very important to water the plants if it is dry and to give them a liquid feed to encourage the bushes to produce the maximum number of blooms and to keep flowering over a long period.
• On the question of what varieties the butterflies like best Peter said that the Painted Ladies seemed to be favouring all bushes equally. There were many hundreds there - a wonderful spectacle.

It is well worth making a visit both to see all the butterflies and to treat your garden butterflies to a new buddleia bush. My top tip is to grow buddleias in pots. When in flower they can be placed in a sunny position easily visible from a window or patio & moved away once they are over. Also pot grown plants do not grow as big so are suitable for small gardens.  
Oh yes and there is more than buddleias - lovely long herbaceous bed and many unusual plants for sale.

Friday 24th July 2009

BRITISH MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES A Photographic Guide by Chris Manley

British Moths and Butterflies A Photographic Guide by Chris Manley is a very welcome addition to the butterfly & moth books currently available. It is the first to provide top quality photographs of a large proportion of the species that occur here. The book covers 1420 species in all including 74 butterflies and 850 macro-moths (which is all but a handful that you are never likely to see anyway). Also covered are more than 500 micros but bear in mind that this is just a selection so don’t use this as your only source of reference for an identification. It usefully includes over 300 photos of caterpillars, pupae and eggs.  Many people will find it helpful in identifying a species especially when used in conjunction a good identification guide such as Waring, Townsend & Lewington. But more importantly the photos in this book really emphasise the beauty of moths and the wonderful range of caterpillars that can be found. The identification of the moths is remarkably free from error but just three stand out: both pictures of 1362 Pyrausta purpuralis are in fact 1361 Pyrausta aurata and the picture of 2488a Plumed Fan-foot is in fact 2490 Jubilee Fan-foot. The short accompanying text with each species is helpful in giving flight times, habitat and larval food plants. Informative and wonderfully inspirational - what more could one ask for £19.99. Well yes just one thing. There was a sad omission from the list of web sites www.hantsmoths.org.uk  
Lynn Fomison & Tim Norriss

Sunday 24th May 2009

Tytherley Woods Project Barbeque 24th May  

Lynn Fomison writes:  "Many thanks to Kate Dent for the super event at Bentley Wood on Sunday. The barbequed venison wonderful, The charcoal making & other displays interesting  but more than that Kate had not only organised superb weather, Small Pearl Bordereds just queuing up to be seen, a shy Duke making an appearance in the Eastern Clearing but those present were able to enjoy the splendid sight of many hundreds of Painted Ladies flying over Bentley Wood. It is a most memorable day!"

Friday 13th March 2009

Help needed to solve caterpillar conundrum

On Wednesday 11 Feb at 7:30pm the BBC South programme ‘Inside Out’ showed footage of the Small Tortoiseshell parasite Sturmia bella. The seven minute feature included interviews with Martin Warren, Owen Lewis (Oxford Uni) and Manuel Hinge (the wildlife filmmaker who captured a parasite emerging on camera). It’s a great piece and hopefully the appeal will be successful in recruiting some more help.   You can see it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/content/articles/2009/03/11/south_s15_w9_small_tortoiseshell_video_feature.shtml
or go straight HERE... to see how you can help discover the decline of the Small Tortoiseshell.

Monday 9th February 2009

English Moth Recorders Conference 2009 held on 31st January at Birmingham.

Maurice Avent

 Almost 100 people attended this event including about 20 County moth recorders plus numerous other interested moth-ers and staff from the Moths Count Team. Hampshire & Isle of Wight Branch was well represented at this event with Tim Norriss there as County Moth Recorder, David Green, Lynn Fomison & Phil Young.  
The conference was opened by BC National Chairman Maurice Avent and he described how his interest in moths had grown from leaving the bathroom light on & the window open to having a moth trap & showing off the moths attracted around his village.  
Richard Fox provided an informative update on the wonderful progress made with the Moths Count Project well illustrated with photos of the many successful events through 2008, gorgeous moths and the all important atlas maps that are being produced using the data.    
Lunch was preceded by a riveting talk by Dr Charles Fletcher of the Yorkshire Moth Group on the effects of climatic change on moth populations in Yorkshire. He had prepared graphs illustrating the weather trends over a number of years and these clearly showed that although there were high & low fluctuations the trend over the last ten years had been one of rising average temperatures. Particularly notable was the fact that Februaries had been less cold and Dr Fletcher clearly demonstrated the close correlation between this and earlier emergence in several spring and summer species. The recent change of some species from being single brooded (univoltine) to double brooded (bivoltine) was also highlighted and attributed to the warmer temperatures being experienced in Yorkshire. This along with the arrival of new species to the county made Yorkshire an exciting place for moth-ers!  
After lunch the theme of climate change continued with Dr Tim Sparks of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology describing effects on migrant lepidoptera. His lecture included a stimulating consideration of what indeed is a migrant!
Dr Dan Hoare Regional Officer for the South East (including Hampshire) described how the SE Woodland Project was seeking to conserve moths on a landscape scale. It was good to have up-to-date news on this as part of the project which includes the Hampshire Woodlands at Tytherley & west into Wiltshire.  
 ‘A net full of moths’ was the title of the presentation by Martin Harvey. The ‘net’ referred to the Internet, with Martin pointing out useful web sites, forums and e-groups. A full list of these can be seen at www.bit.ly/mothweb  Especially useful to new moth-ers could be the What’s flying tonight sections on Norfolk Moths, Suffolk Moths & Somerset Moths web sites.  
The last lecture of the day – Dr Paul Hatcher ‘Conserving the Netted Carpet moth in the Lake District’ was an inspirational story of how cattle grazing and the associated poaching created ideal conditions for their larval food plant Touch-me-not Balsam Impatiens noli-tangere thus helping to save an endangered moth.
There was lots of time to meet up with old friends, talk to other moth-ers and the national Moths Count team – a great day in all respects.
Lynn Fomison, Reserves Officer.  Event photographs copyright A. Pavličko.

Wednesday 7th January 2009

THE WIDER COUNTRYSIDE BUTTERFLY SURVEY (WCBS) GOES AHEAD IN 2009

 After two years of pilot testing, a new method of monitoring butterflies in widespread habitats, such as farmland and upland moorland, is to be rolled out nationwide this year.  
The Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey method has been developed by Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology as part of the UKBMS project.  
The existing Transect network provides invaluable data on the status of butterflies, yet widespread habitats are under-recorded. More information on the fate of butterflies in these areas is needed. The new survey is intended to fill these gaps by complementing, rather than replacing, the existing Transect network.  
The pilot testing has thrown up some interesting information. Last year, despite the unsettled weather, nearly two thirds of the 1-km squares visited in 2007 were revisited by volunteers. In total 40 species were recorded.   Importantly all 23 target species were detected in both pilot years which means that trends can be analysed to test whether classic Transects provide a truly representative picture of butterflies in the UK landscape as a whole.   Volunteers who have participated in the pilot testing have shown considerable enthusiasm and it is hoped this will continue to grow.  
There has been close involvement with the British Trust for Ornithology and the method is based on the highly successful Breeding Bird Survey.  We hope that many BTO recorders will be returning to their bird sites this summer to collect butterfly data as part of the survey along with many new surveys completed by BC recorders.  
The new method involves making a minimum of two visits to a randomly selected square near to your home between May and August to count butterflies along two 1km survey lines running roughly north-south through the your square. The survey will be co-ordinated centrally by BC but we aim to find a Champion in each Branch to help find willing volunteers. We are aiming for 20 squares per Branch.  
Please email survey@butterfly-conservation.org or call 01929 406036 to register interest in taking part and you will be contacted in early spring with instructions and the location of your random 1km survey square. Keep an eye on www.butterfly-conservation.org/wcbs for more information.
Dr Katie Cruickshanks, WCBS co-ordinator