Site amendments

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all - I'll be updating the site listing soon and would appreciate any feedback you might have. For example, the Heath Fritillary has gone extinct at Thrift Wood in Essex.

Please reply to this thread (or email me directly) with amendments, including new sites (and the species found there) together with any amendments to existing sites that are listed.

Please note that we DO NOT list sensitive sites (including private sites), or species at sites where they are considered to be in a fragile state.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Rosalyn]

You have Wall listed for Monks Wood, Cambs. This is not so. We have had Silver-washed Fritillary for a few years now

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Rosalyn!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Rosalyn]

Woodwalton Fen, Ramsey Heights, Cambs TL235849 Purple Emperor has been seen regularly for a few years now and in good numbers, Silver-washed Fritillary also

[Matsukaze]

A fair few in Somerset:

Bannerdown has lost Chalkhill Blue
Black Rock has gained Grizzled Skipper, lost Small Blue
Collard Hill has Brown Hairstreak
Draycott Sleights has lost Grayling
Lord's Wood has White-letter Hairstreak
Mount Fancy has lost Marsh and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries
Haddon Hill has Green Hairstreak
Room Hill has Dark Green Fritillary but has lost High Brown Fritillary (though reintroduction is being explored).

plus one in Wiltshire:
Grovely Wood has Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

[Mark Tutton]

Hi Pete
Here are some thoughts about some existing sites listed listed in my local OS grid square SU:
Bentley Wood Eastern clearing Duke of Burgundy
Butser Hill good population of Dark Green Fritillary
Not sure that Crab Wood has DoB any longer
Farley Mount Country Park - purple Emperor
Havant Thicket - have not seen DGF in the last five years but there are white admiral , silver washed fritillary and purple emperor
Old Winchester hill has several colonies of DoB

Hope that is useful
Mark

[millerd]

Just a handful of amendments for now:

Denbies Hillside also regularly has Dark Green Fritillary

Box Hill has a small population of Small Blue

Aston Rowant (N) has DGF and Adonis Blue

Bookham Common has Brown Hairstreak

Dave

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Pete,

I've only had time to fly through these rapidly, but the following updates should bring a number of sites into much better shape.

TQ:
Abbots Wood - remove SPBF and Wall
Alexander Park should read Alexandra Park
Arundel Park - remove Chalk Hill Blue
Beckley Wood - remove PBF
Cissbury Ring - add Adonis, Chalk hill and Small Blues, Silver-spotted Skipper, Small Copper, Brown Hairstreak, Marbled White, Essex Skipper
Devil's Dyke - add Green Hairstreak and Silver-spotted Skipper
Mill Hill - remove Small Blue - add Silver-spotted Skipper
Park Corner Heath - add PBF
Rowland Wood - add Grizzled Skipper, PBF
Springhead - add Purple Emperor, Brown Argus, Clouded Yellow, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Green Hairstreak, Duke of Burgundy
NEW SITE Steyning Rifle Range TQ165112 Brown Hairstreak, Wall, Chalk Hill Blue, Brown Argus, Clouded Yellow

SU:
Binsted Wood - add Purple Emperor
Levin Down - remove Chalk Hill and Small Blues
The Trundle - add Small Blue
NEW SITE Heyshott Escarpment SU899168 Duke of Burgundy, PBF, Purple Emperor, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Green Hairstreak, Marbled White, Chalk Hill Blue

BWs, Neil

[downland boy]

Hi Neil,

The Wall still occurs in very small numbers in Abbott's Wood. I saw a 3rd brood individual in 2014.

All the best, Downland boy

[Neil Hulme]

Hi downland boy,

I know the odd one turns up periodically, but I wouldn't list a species for a venue summary on that basis. However, you almost certainly visit the venue more often than I do, so it would be useful to know if they can be seen with any reliability there, even if the numbers are small. I know that Wall has shown in small numbers for the last year or two at PCH/Rowland Wood, but I'd probably give it another year or two before listing it. Its appearance here seems to be part of the recent trend for the Wall to regain some lost ground away from the coast.

BWs, Neil

[dilettante]

I'd like to think you can add DGF to Therfield Heath TL341397
Good numbers there in 2014, and also seen there in 2013.

Another good site to include would be Gamlingay Wood (TL241537) and the adjacent Sugley Wood (TL244538). SWF in good numbers at the former, plus Speckled Wood, Comma, Ringlet, GVW.
The latter for a good population of Marbled White and the other grassland species (Meadown Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Skipper, Large Skipper, Ringlet, Common Blue)

[FISHiEE]

Hi Pete,

I've only had time to fly through these rapidly, but the following updates should bring a number of sites into much better shape.

TQ:
Abbots Wood - remove SPBF and Wall
Alexander Park should read Alexandra Park
Arundel Park - remove Chalk Hill Blue
Beckley Wood - remove PBF
Cissbury Ring - add Adonis, Chalk hill and Small Blues, Silver-spotted Skipper, Small Copper, Brown Hairstreak, Marbled White, Essex Skipper
Devil's Dyke - add Green Hairstreak and Silver-spotted Skipper
Mill Hill - remove Small Blue - add Silver-spotted Skipper
Park Corner Heath - add PBF
Rowland Wood - add Grizzled Skipper, PBF
Springhead - add Purple Emperor, Brown Argus, Clouded Yellow, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Green Hairstreak, Duke of Burgundy
NEW SITE Steyning Rifle Range TQ165112 Brown Hairstreak, Wall, Chalk Hill Blue, Brown Argus, Clouded Yellow

SU:
Binsted Wood - add Purple Emperor
Levin Down - remove Chalk Hill and Small Blues
The Trundle - add Small Blue
NEW SITE Heyshott Escarpment SU899168 Duke of Burgundy, PBF, Purple Emperor, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, Green Hairstreak, Marbled White, Chalk Hill Blue

BWs, Neil

I think you'd also have to go back some years to find PBF and small PBF in Flatropers Wood in TQ too. Conversely the wild boar are thriving!

[Neil Hulme]

FISHiEE wrote:

"I think you'd also have to go back some years to find PBF and small PBF in Flatropers Wood in TQ too. Conversely the wild boar are thriving!"

Yes, a very long time. These references should be removed. I must confess that I only looked at c.50% of the TQ sites listed, due to time constraints.

BWs, Neil

[David M]

Now that I'm familiar with my local surroundings, I wonder whether you'd consider adding Fairwood Common on the Gower to the list of sites?

The grid reference is SS 568905 and the notable species there are Marsh Fritillary, Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Dark Green Fritillary, Dingy Skipper and Green Hairstreak.

[Jack Harrison]

Fairwood Common

David. What, if any, plans are there to develop Swansea Airport? I read that there are strong objections to development due to it being within Fairwood Common, a Special Area of Conservation.

Jack

[David M]

What, if any, plans are there to develop Swansea Airport? I read that there are strong objections to development due to it being within Fairwood Common, a Special Area of Conservation.

If there are any plans to develop Swansea airport then I haven't seen them, Jack.

The Gower Peninusla was the UK's first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and you need planning permission to inflate a paddling pool here!!

The airport itself is for light aircraft only and very much resembles airfields of 40+ years ago.

If it were to be extended, the development work would destroy vast swathes of prime marshland as the location itself is completely surrounded by this terrain.

Even then you would need additional infrastructure to link the airport to the city centre which, to my amateur eyes, would require unreasonable disruption to the landscape and to the daily lives of people living in nearby villages such as Killay, Sketty and Uplands.

If ever the authorities decided that Swansea needed a sizeable passenger airport (which I personally don't think is likely) then I'd expect a new one to be constructed far nearer the major transport hubs just north of the city (around Penllergaer or Pontlliw for example).

[Paul Harfield]

Hi Pete

I notice that many of the sites do not have the commoner species listed against them although a few do. Is there a reason for this or is it just that people do not bother to provide the information or are not interested. It would be nice to see complete species listings for site. I can provide this for sites that I visit regularly if required.

How does one decide if a site which is not currently listed should be listed and does one require permission to publish this information?

Advice please

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Pete

I notice that many of the sites do not have the commoner species listed against them although a few do. Is there a reason for this or is it just that people do not bother to provide the information or are not interested. It would be nice to see complete species listings for site. I can provide this for sites that I visit regularly if required.

How does one decide if a site which is not currently listed should be listed and does one require permission to publish this information?

Advice please

Thanks all.

Paul - the original listings didn't bother with widespread species, since it is assumed these appear on the site based on their distribution, even if they're not specifically mentioned. However, that changed when people were able to update the site listings directly, although this led to all sorts of untrusted information appearing!) So I suggest we stick with defining whatever species are found at a site since it's easier to remove than add! But I personally wouldn't include a site that ONLY contained widespread species; we had quite a few come through that were each, essentially, "my back garden".

As I mentioned at the start of this thread, we should only list sites that are public and are not sensitive / fragile. And we should not mention species that are considered fragile at a particular site. Everything else is fine.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Liz Goodyear]

From TL!
Bricket Wood Common add Silver-washed Fritillary and Purple Emperor
Broxbourne Woods add SWF
Hexton Chalk Pit - delete Small Blue add Dingy Skipper, Chalkhill Blue and Dark Green
Add Waterford Heath as a site

SP
Aldbury Nowers add Small Blue

We list our best sites in our New Members leaflet (credit to Beds and Northants BC)
http://www.hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.u ... eaflet.pdf
Liz

[Jack Harrison]

David M ref Swansea airfield

The airport itself is for light aircraft only and very much resembles airfields of 40+ years ago.

It could well be that the airfield itself could hold some very good wildlife: pictures show quite a wild area.

But there lies a problem. One gliding airfield where I used to fly had the most stunning colonies of Bee Orchids. It was - and in my view probably correctly - decided not to involve or even inform English Nature as they would be bound to want to "manage". And another gliding site in the north of England similarly has some very interesting flora (damp boggy area at edge of airfield and can't recall what species they told me about, I think some rare orchids) but again they wanted to keep publicity to the minimum. So it would not surprise me if Swansea airfield holds some surprises. Do you reckon you could get access David to find out?

I would agree that area doesn’t need another airport. After all Cardiff is hardly over-busy.


Jack