The project co-ordinators

The project co-ordinators are Liz Goodyear and Andrew Middleton of the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch.

As a result of the project Liz Goodyear and Andrew Middleton are recognised as the country's leading experts on finding elm and recording White-letter Hairstreak.

About us

In 1999, whilst surveying for the Millennium Atlas Project Andrew Middleton was walking through a rarely visited area of woodland in South Herts looking for White Admiral, when he saw a Purple Emperor taking salts from the roof tiles of a cottage. That same year, Liz Goodyear was surveying nearby woodland when a large dark butterfly hurtled past her.  It was only later, after she had met Andrew that she realised that her large butterfly was a female Purple Emperor.  In the summer of 2000, now working as a team, more Purple Emperors were found. Since 1999 Liz and Andrew have recorded Purple Emperor in the East of England and London in c. 30 x 10km squares with c. 45 assembly areas found as far north at the north Norfolk coast! Until 1999, the Purple Emperor was not thought to exist in Hertfordshire, let alone Middlesex, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk!

Presentations have been made at the Butterfly Conservation, National Annual General Meeting in 2004 and the International Symposium in 2005.  Their work on the study of Purple Emperor is nationally recognised and in November 2006, Liz was  presented with a Butterfly Conservation 'Outstanding Volunteer' award at the National AGM in Bristol for her work studying Purple Emperor and the contribution she makes to branch work.

In 2005, the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch asked for volunteers to act as 10km square co-ordinators to ensure the some poorly recorded areas, were visited more reqularly. Liz volunteered to take on TL41, an intensely agricultural area acknowledged for its lack of bio-diversity in east Hertfordshire, and Andrew took on TQ38 & TQ39, a mainly urban habitat in the north of London.

In addition to the 'usual' species both decided to target White-letter Hairstreak in 2006 and the idea of the project came from the results of that work........

If you would like to contact the co-ordinators and discuss their work please email either:

Telephone: 07866654056 or
Telephone: 07815581934 (please leave a message if unavailable or text)Copperdock surveys http://www.copperdock.co.uk/index.php