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NEWSLETTER No. 6 -  Winter 1981/82

WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH, BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION

 

Trip Reports

Sunday, August 9th. - Cleeve Common

The morning of the trip began with heavy cloud, following prolonged heavy rain on the day before. Fortified by a forecast promising some sunshine later, we set off from a car park which was partially under water. The first butterfly spotted was a Marbled White clinging to a grass stem drying out in the rapidly brightening sun.

As we carried on down the path, a few more Marbled Whites took wing together with Small Heaths, Speckled Woods, Small Skippers and Wall Browns in increasingly good numbers as the weather improved. The first Grayling was then seen and was found in quite good numbers. A pair was observed on the ground indulging in their courtship behaviour in which the male walks around the female.

At this point the Dark Green Fritillary put in an appearance, flying by very slowly without landing. Although it was close enough for identification, it was disappointing that this was to be our only sighting of the day. We then saw several of the commoner species including the Whites, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Gatekeepers and a single Painted Lady was seen.

As we had not seen the Chalkhill Blue at this stage, it was decided to try a second site a short distance away. Almost immediately on arrival we found a very fresh male, and then saw several more of both sexes together with more Grayling. Thus we were able to end a less than perfect day from the weather point of view by having seen the species to be expected.

Ron Hatton


Sunday, August 30th. - Chilterns

The day, much to everyone's surprise turned out to be warm and sunny with a slight breeze.

We met up with everyone at the appointed place and made our way to the first site where one of our youngest members, Tony Hatton, not only found the first Silver-spotted Skipper but also found a female laying an egg. This was a beautiful place to wander through and we saw the following: Brimstone, Speckled Wood, Small Heath, Brown Argus, Small Skipper, Peacock, Common Blue, Chalkhill Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Large and Small White, Small Copper, Wall Brown, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown. It was interesting to see a Gatekeeper that was infested with red mites.

After lunch we made our way to our second site to be met at a stile by an enormous horse which devoured our valiant leader's ice cream as he attempted to climb over the stile. While he was thus occupied, we lesser mortals slunk through or over the gate. Our super sleuth, Tony, managed to find the first Adonis Blue - a beautiful specimen which posed endlessly for our keen photographers. Perhaps we shall see their results soon (hopefully at January's Slide Evening - see Winter Programme). The site was covered in Marjoram, Chiltern Gentian and Clustered Bell-flower, and we also noticed several Robin's Pin Cushion galls on the wild Roses. Other butterflies seen were Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Green-veined White and a very old tired Marbled White, which brought our total of species seen to 21 - a truly memorable day.

Jenny Allen