Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Brimstone. A male Brimstone has been flitting round my Harpenden garden this morning. Regards Robin [Posted by Robin Pearson]
Transect Recording. Its only a few weeks before the new season starts and the branch transect list page has been updated! Some of the branch transects have been walked for over 25 years which really shows how butterfly numbers have declined or in some cases increased thanks to habitat management changes. This is clearly illustrated in the recently published Chorleywood Common Report for 2018 - 2023. The branch gave habitat advice in 2018, which was implemented and at the same time a transect was set up to monitor how effective the changes were - a superb result! There are several transects that are no longer walked - if you would like to volunteer please contact Andrew Wood (details on committee page) [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
More Brown Hairstreak finds. Two Brown Hairstreak eggs found on the Hillingdon trail path south of Harefield. A further eleven eggs found at Hounslow Heath including four laid together in one instance. [Posted by Rohan Harris]
Peacock at Trent Park. 1 Peacock nectaring on Sallow flowers by lower lake, Trent Park at 1336 GMT. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
BC Surrey Zoom Talk on Tuesday 12th March 7-8pm.. Steven Lofting is Butterfly Conservation's Conservation Manager for SE England, which includes Surrey (Steve will also be involved with some work in our branch area of London). He will give an update on BC's work for butterflies and moths on a landscape scale in South East England. Working at a landscape-scale, with partners, is fundamental to improving conditions for wildlife, and BC's strategy includes a goal to improve the condition of some of the most important landscapes for butterflies and moths. Read more here This is one of a series of Zoom talks presented by the Surrey & SW London Branch of Butterfly Conservation. Link to register : The talk will also be recorded and be available to watch on YouTube later. [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Brown Hairstreak egg finds at Warren Farm LNR. I decided I wanted to visit Warren Farm LNR in Hanwell, following the exciting news that they had been successful in their fight to gain LNR status! Information was that there was a lot of blackthorn but this wasn't the case but I found 2 Brown Hairstreak eggs amongst some sucker growth. I then visited Trumper's Meadow which is between the Grand Union Canal and Warren Farm and found 3 more eggs (only 2 were viable). (for info I planned this trip before seeing on iRecord a late entry of an adult sighting from August 2023 close to the Meadow!) [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Attracting Butterflies and Moths to Gardens and Green Spaces - Malcolm Hull. Click here to view Malcolm Hull's talk on 29 February [Posted by Peter Clarke]
IMPORTANT. Please read about the revamped version of our branch website. Welcome to the revamped version of our branch website. Our branch website is modelled on the Hants/IOW branch website. As well as the visual attractiveness of this website it incorporates many important features including increased security and improved performance. One significant feature is the use of News items including sightings submitted by observers. Rather than sending emails for submission it is better to have this done automatically and then verified by an administrator. Another factor is online editing. Some users can be granted access to edit certain web pages themselves instead of them being done manually by an administrator. Other notable features are included as shown on the horizontal menu. In the past, we have allowed observers to send emails for submission of records to appear on the sightings page and to be recorded on a 'sightings' database hence the requirement for a specific location like grid reference. Now, however, it is common practice to submit records formally through national databases like iRecord. Any sightings reported via the 'Submit News' function will NOT be recorded on any database so it is not necessary to be specific about location. To submit a news item (sighting, online talk, field trip or any significant event) click on the 'Submit News' button under the 'News' button on the horizontal menu as shown in Photo 1 (click to expand) below. You should be presented with a 'News Form' as shown in Photo 2. Fill in the details as required. Up to 3 photos can be uploaded. It is recommended that each photo is less than 2Mb in size otherwise you may be asked to resize or crop the image. After completing the form, click the 'Preview' button to inspect the resultant action. If satisfied, click the 'Submit' button. The item will have to be verified by an administrator before it appears on the news item list as represented on the 'News' screen (see Photo 3) and its title on the right hand side on the Home page. Finally, I must thank Pete Eeles for his invaluable support. [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Brown Hairstreak. One Brown Hairstreak egg found at Hampstead Heath Extension [Posted by Rohan Harris]
Brown Hairstreak eggs. Three Brown Hairstreak eggs found at West Hendon Playing fields in two separate areas. [Posted by Rohan Harris]
Brown Hairstreak egg at Hampstead Heath. One Brown Hairstreak egg found on Hampstead Heath [Posted by Rohan Harris]
Brown Hairstreak eggs at Whitings Hill/Open Space, Barnet. I had had on my radar Whitings Hill/Open Space in Barnet, a short distance from the previous Dollis Brook sightings even to point of knowing where to park but hadn't got around to visiting. However last week Rohan tried to survey the site but was defeated by torrential rain and mud but reported it had a lot of blackthorn. This was far too tempting so I visited today. The mud is horrendous but there is so much blackthorn, in fact too much and much of it is well budded and almost in flower! Over a period of 3½ hours I found 4 Brown Hairstreak eggs well distributed across the site so I suspect there were many more! Thanks to Rohan for reminding me of this site and for his and everyone else's tremendous finds this winter! This was definitely my last survey as the budding is really making it too difficult now to find eggs! Hopefully these sites will dry out a bit by the summer! [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
White-letter Hairstreak egg at Garston Park. I returned to Garston Park in Watford today to make sure I hadn't missed any blackthorn on my previous visit! Next to a nice stand of blackthorn I realised there was some nice flowering elm low down and after some searching I finally found a hatched White-letter Hairstreak egg – I had forgotten how small they look when hatched! [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Female Brimstone Nomansland Common. Working with conservation volunteers on Nomansland Common clearing Gorse, although the air temperature was low, if felt warm in the sun in front of the trees, and a female Brimstone flew past and settled on the Gorse about knee high. It then clouded over, cooled down, and the Brimstone stayed settled. I decided to photograph it when we finished work, but cold rain then started (I understand it fell as hail nearby in St Albans). I assume this was why the Brimstone stayed put despite me accidentally shaking the Gorse a few times when I caught on brambles, and pushing my compact camera to little more than an inch from it for maximum magnification. [Posted by Chris Newman]
A trip though the Pyrenees, the Cévennes and the Auvergne. Roger Gibbons' online Zoom talk on 21 February. YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jksHvZxWQ6Q [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Finding Black Hairstreak and other caterpillars using UV torchlight. Online Zoom talk by Gareth Tilley (Surrey & SW London branch on 20 February. YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qaRJJnRV1I [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Brown Hairstreak egg near Holywell. One Brown Hairstreak egg found at King George’s fields near Holywell [Posted by Rohan Harris]
Small Tortoiseshell in Enfield. Eugene Dillon-Hooper reports a sighting of a Small Tortoiseshell in the Enfield area late morning [Posted by Robert Callf]
Brown Hairstreak eggs near Harrow. Following on from recent Brown Hairstreak egg finds in the Stanmore area I decided to revisit an area of blackthorn off Old Redding near the Harrow View point today first seen in January 2022. It is a public footpath with prunus along the hedge line – in total I found 8 Brown Hairstreak eggs but to my surprise I looked at two probable Cherry Plum bushes that were already flowering and found 2 eggs despite the flowers! Another blackthorn twig had 3 eggs very close to each other [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Brown Hairstreak eggs at Croxley Common Moor. Two Brown Hairstreak eggs found at Croxley Common Moor [Posted by Rohan Harris]