Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Completed Work for the Grizzled Skipper at Waterford Heath. This is how the site looks now after the work has been done [Posted by Andrew Wood]
Enhancing Grizzled Skipper habitat at Waterford Heath. In the past two and a half weeks Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust in association with our branch of Butterfly Conservation have been doing a major piece of habitat restoration on the north section at Waterford Heath. An area that was once a stronghold for this rare butterfly had during Covid and after become overgrown with Italian alder, hawthorn, wild rose and dogwood that was too well rooted to clear to allow wild strawberry and cinquefoil (caterpillar foodplants) to recover. We agreed that drastic work was needed to clear this area, scrape off some of the topsoil and see if a major intervention can help this threatened butterfly. It all looks very muddy and messy and some roots remain despite the use of mechanical plant to extract roots. The scraped soil has been moved to a very barren area to create sheltered banks which we also hope will be beneficial to insect and plant populations on the heath. The first set of pictures show the area (about the size of two football pictures) before clearance and the second set below what it looks like at the end of the work. [Posted by Andrew Wood]
Brown Hairstreak eggs near Heathrow. After recording (on 13th August 2025) the first ever adult Brown Hairstreak to be found on the Heathrow River Colne Biodiversity Area (part of my local patch to the north of Stanwell Moor), I had arranged with the relevant team from LHR to join them for a winter BH egg hunt in the most likely part of the site. This is an east-facing hedgerow containing a fair bit of blackthorn, including some low suckering growth encroaching into the grassland. Over the course of a couple of hours between five of us we found eleven Brown Hairstreak eggs. This was an excellent result, and will have a direct bearing on how this bit of the site is managed in the future. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Red Admiral. Seen in a garden in Bishop's Stortford by Andy White [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Pale Brindled Beauty at Southgate. Male Pale Brindled Beauty at ASDA Southgate this afternoon - my first moth of the year! [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Butterfly artwork in Hatfield. If you go to Hatfield, visit the Queensway Subway in the Town Centre. Today the mayor of Hatfield, 'opened' the recently commisioned subway artshow to complement the existing mural. Features some lovely artwork by local painters of our Hertfordshire butterflies and well worth a visit. [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Butterflies of Southern Mexico - Ian Small. For those that missed the Zoom Presentation on the 21st January, it can now be viewed on YouTube. YouTube recording can be viewed here [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Millhoppers Reserve footbridge. I am pleased to inform everyone that the footbridge at the Millhoppers Reserve is open and ready to accept the feet of all lepidopterists and other like minded folk. A good job as we now have quite a bit of water flowing in the stream! Huge thanks to fellow warden Peter plus volunteers Len and Phil who helped me with constructing the ramps either side of the bridge. [Posted by Chris Hilling]
Ealing Beaver Project Brown Hairstreak egg hunt at Paradise Fields. I have now heard back from the co-ordinators of the egg hunt on 11th January and the final count was a phenomenal total of 242 eggs counted during the morning; 71 of the eggs were found in the 2nd year regrowth in the 'beaver coppice area'! [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Hedgerow Heroes. Volunteers from BC and CPRE Herts planting hedges on the Woodhall Estate north of Hertford today. The 15 species selected are all good for butterflies or moths, including Buckthorn for Brimstones, Elm for White-letter Hairstreak, Holly for Holly Blue and Blackthorn for Brown Hairstreak (ready for when it arrives in this area!). There’s another task at the same site at 10 am next Sunday 25th. Email james@cpreherts.org.Uk if you’d like to volunteer to help. All necessary tools and training provided [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Hibernating Peacocks. Today I carried out my first hibernating butterflies transect of the year. Five Peacocks all still dormant in my shed. One has acquired an unusual pale spot on the underwing. I’ve not seen this before and interested to know if anyone has an idea what may have caused it? [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Welsh Harp Brown Hairstreak egg hunt. The recent Brown Hairstreak egg hunt/survey at the Welsh Harp is reported as having found 59 eggs - a superb result Full report here [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Branch Event- Brown Hairstreak Egg Hunt at Ruislip Gardens. -5c @ 8am on my garden thermometer so no surprise we had a few drop outs but the sun shone on the 6 that braved the cold which was to be a sunny pleasant social event along the 2+km loop passing various Brown Hairstreak master trees and clearings where the adults frequent. 28 eggs were found in total with everyone including the 3 first timers finding 2+ which was a reasonable count due to the blackthorn hedges having been cut back hard upto the Ickenham Marsh Reserve entrance, which we didn't venture to for the above reason. Nice that 2 eggs were found in an area of very heavy flailing. Egg picture courtesy of Dee. [Posted by Nick Furtek]
