First Grizzled Skippers

[Perseus]

Hello,

10 April 2008
On a mild (>10.5 °C) sunny day there were frequent butterflies on Mill Hill, Old Shoreham, Sussex, and its approaches including my first Small Torotiseshell of the year, the first two Grizzled Skippers on the lower slopes, ten Peacocks and two Comma Butterflies.

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2008.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: April 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/April2008.html

Adur Valley & Downs Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/groups/adur/pool/

[Trev Sawyer]

Yeeaaaaayyy!!!
Grizzled Skippers on the wing down South eh? That really IS a sign of spring and has made my day already (its only 8.56am too!). Don't suppose they will be out in my neck of the disused railway tracks yet, but maybe soon. Just hoping a few specimens are able to survive at the Over railway cutting site near Cambridge, now that much of it has been covered with concrete for the damned "(mis)guided bus" route . There HAS been considerable effort made to help this isolated colony to hang on, but only time will tell whether we lose it. That was the only site close to me that I am aware of, so I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) firmly crossed.

Trev

[Trev Sawyer]

PS: Pete... Looks like the threads are still in "winter time"... can the clock be changed to "Summer time" please? Ta.

[Pete Eeles]

PS: Pete... Looks like the threads are still in "winter time"... can the clock be changed to "Summer time" please? Ta.

Should be fixed now - please confirm

Cheers,

- Pete

[Trev Sawyer]

Your posting is down as 8.26am Pete, so maybe not?

[Perseus]

First Adur Butterfly Dates 2003 to 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/ButterfliesFFT.htm

[Pete Eeles]

Your posting is down as 8.26am Pete, so maybe not?

It's 9:26am for me

I see what's happening. Since this website is accessed by users from all over the world, and since each may be in a different timezone, and may or may not support daylight savings, you need to set this on a per user basis. To do this:

Access the "User Control Panel" (just below "Board Index").
Select the "Board Preferences" tab.
Set "Summer Time/DST is in effect" to "Yes".
Click "Submit".

Cheers,

- Pete

[Trev Sawyer]

It's cured itself my end now Pete. Thanks, whatever you did. and apologies for hijacking the thread.

Anyhow... back to the Grizzled Skippers...

Thanks for the first sightings page Purseus.

[Perseus]

It is the equal earliest date for Grizzled Skippers on Mill Hill with year 2005 this century. The species is rather localised in distribution locally. Only found on wild ungrazed terrain on the chalk.

[Martin]

Where and when would be the best for me to see my first Grizzled Skipper? I live in West London.

Martin.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Martin,
Log on to http://www.hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.uk and upperthames-butterflies.org.uk, your most local Butterfly Conservation Branch websites. Keep an eye on their sightings pages for Grizzled Skippers. Where there's one there's more! It's still very early in the season for them and they will only be out on the warmest, southern sites yet. Give it two weeks and you should be in business. Happy hunting!
Neil

[Perseus]

Grizzled Skippers are easy to overlook. I would have missed them on my last visit to Mill Hill if it was not for the enthusiasts there who had seen ten!

The nectar plant visited on the slopes are violets. I have only got records on the Dog Violets which follow the Sweet Violets.

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Violets.htm

Mill Hill 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/MillHill2008.html
Shoreham Bank 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/VetchTrail2008.htm

[Martin]

Hi Martin,
Log on to http://www.hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.uk and upperthames-butterflies.org.uk, your most local Butterfly Conservation Branch websites. Keep an eye on their sightings pages for Grizzled Skippers. Where there's one there's more! It's still very early in the season for them and they will only be out on the warmest, southern sites yet. Give it two weeks and you should be in business. Happy hunting!
Neil

Being a Herts and Middlesex member I should have realised that was the best place to look

Martin.

[Susie]

As I saw your post about Mill Hill I thought I would have a look at Denbies Hillside. The chalk grassland was full of violets in flower but I didn't see any Grizzled Skippers there this time. I will try again in a week or so.

[Perseus]

As I saw your post about Mill Hill I thought I would have a look at Denbies Hillside. The chalk grassland was full of violets in flower but I didn't see any Grizzled Skippers there this time. I will try again in a week or so.

I think cattle will actually eat the food plants of the Grizzled Skipper. Can't help in the long run.

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/v ... php?p=8763

[Lynn]

GS & cattle!

I think our experience at Butterfly Conservation's Magdalen Hill Down reserve near Winchester would support a view that cattle grazing done at the right time ie winter months does not harm GS colonies, indeed the effects in creating bare ground & nice micro habitats in hoof prints is probably beneficial. Up until 2004 it had only been recorded on transect (& otherwise) as odd one's and two's. It took off in 2005 with 17 recorded on transect. Subsequent years were 2006 24, 2007 32.

The main foodplant used is agrimony although we did have a suspicion that they might be making use of the plentiful bramble too. Anyway extra agrimony has been sown on other parts of the reserve & it will be fascinating to see if we can encourage GS to increase and spread.

[Perseus]

Grizzled Skipper
Pyrgus malvae
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species. ... %20Skipper

The main food plants are Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria), Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) and Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca). Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis), Bramble (Rubus fruticosus), Dog-rose (Rosa canina), Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor), Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) and Wood Avens (Geum urbanum) are also used.


Adur Observations:

Very limited distribution and only occasionally seen with records from Mill Hill and the Slonk Hill Cutting, both ungrazed. Food plants are not known for Adur. Silverweed looks the most probable, but that is not on the list. It has not been recorded from the Lancing Ring meadows.


PS:

Cattle would probably eat all the food plants. Winter turfprints encourage grasses and ruderal plants, especially if fertilised. (Critical text is "breaking up the integral chalkhill herb flora"). They are so ideal, that winter cattle can be guaranteed to destroy a butterfly site of the herbal food plants in a few months. Historically, it was done deliberately as the butterfly plants to a farmer are a weed on chalk downs.

In theory, Grizzled Skippers shouldn't do too badly on pasture as their food plants like lightly disturbed land, whereas most of the chalkhill herbs like undisturbed land. However, in practice, for Adur, I do not have a single record other than from wild sites, rabbit grazed.

[Perseus]

Hello,

16 April 2008
In the late afternoon, past the optimum time for butterflies, on the transect walk of the lower slopes of Mill Hill, there were no Grizzled Skippers to be seen as definites in passing, so I retraced my steps and a smaller male was seen amongst the Bramble and then a second one. There was a larger female on the path as it enters the scrub to the north settled briefly in the weak sunshine. I surmised a correlation between the Grizzled Skippers and Bramble, which is one of its larval food plants.


Mill Hill 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/MillHill2008.html
Shoreham Bank 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/VetchTrail2008.htm

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes (including Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex)
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
-----------------------------------------

[Lynn]

Noted comments by Perseus re cattle grazing - all I can do is report what works for us!

People will see that views on the efficacy of grazing with cattle obviously vary. It is of concern to me that newcomers to conservation might be feeling a bit confused! I am always willing to discuss what we do by way of winter cattle grazing and the value of it on our Hampshire reserves. I can be contacted via the Hampshire Branch web site.
Lynn Fomison

[Perseus]

Management really depends on the history of the site. In the past, it was usually the best economic use, but now with conservation areas, this is not so clear.

Some definitions of types of land use:

Pasture (type of animals)
Meadow (hay or created wildlife)
Rotation of crops land
Arable
Nature Reserves (often land not used for farming because it was not suitable)
Rabbit Warrens
Road verges
Rights of Way (footpaths and bridleways)

In the late 19th century some rotated land reverted to pasture with the fall in wheat prices. After WWII, farmland production as assisted with chemicals to a greater degree.

Sheep pasture on chalk was maximised at 0.85 sheep per acre on the chalk downs.

The patterns of urination and dunging of cattle and horses need to be put in the Management Plan which is obligatory for Nature Reserves, but this is sometime short-cutted. This is before the public consultation with any proposed changes.