I will always remember looking longingly at the naïve illustrations of Silver-spotted Skipper in 'A Butterfly Book for the Pocket' by Edmund Sandars, originally published in 1939. This was my first butterfly book and it still has a place on my bookshelf. The description "locally common on the chalk and limestone downs and hills of south England only" was misleading when I read it in the early 1970s and we couldn't find it anywhere. Later in life I came to know that it was highly restricted in distribution and threatened with extinction. Its location in Sussex was a closely guarded secret. With the passage of time I became increasingly involved in the conservation of butterflies, and increasingly interested in the factors assisting the Silver-spotted Skipper’s reclamation of long-lost ground. Over the last ten years I've become ever-more optimistic that it would appear on Cissbury Ring, a location in which I've watched butterflies for most of my life.
I was delighted to discover the Silver-spotted Skipper (up to 5 individuals) on Cissbury Ring in 2013, and at several other sites nearby. It would appear that these discoveries (plus those of others) reflected the first phase of significant population spread since the occupation of Chantry Hill near Storrington in 2007, with adventurous females setting off from this and other established sites in 2012. I was relieved to count 16 at Cissbury on July 24th, indicating that the colony had become well established.
On Tuesday (29th July) I returned, but initially found difficulty in relocating them. After considerable effort I only managed to see 4 in the meadow adjacent to the south gate, where I first discovered them. I feared that the recent violent hailstorm might have knocked them back, as weather conditions of that intensity can kill butterflies on open grassland sites en masse. I was relieved and delighted when I walked into the adjacent meadow and immediately saw a high speed chase of 6 Silver-spots. A systematic count of an area approximately 70m x 200m gave me a total of 53. This amounts to a remarkable build in population over just two seasons. Perhaps even more remarkable is that it has already outstripped the presumed donor site, Chantry Hill, where I counted 48 later in the day. All indications are that Cissbury Ring is likely to host one of the largest populations of Silver-spotted Skipper in Sussex within a few years, perhaps ranking alongside sites such as Newtimber Hill and Malling Down.
I also visited Washington Chalk Pits, another 2013 discovery, where I found 3 Silver-spotted Skipper. My last stop of the day was Long Furlong, a strip of downland near Findon, where my brothers and I spent long days learning everything we could about wildlife in our school summer holidays. Although I searched this site last year, without luck, I was delighted to find 2 more Silver-spots. Colin Pratt, author of ‘A complete History of the Butterflies and Moths of Sussex’, assures me that the species hasn’t been recorded here since 1939, the year Sandars first published his little gem of a book.
Also I'll be in Wales next week so will there still eb some Brown Hairstreaks left when I get back - how long is their flight period?
