Hi Pauline,
In veiw of all the latest posts, I hope you don't mind if I butt in on your diary. I thought you all might be interested in the e-mail exchanges between myself and Clive Wood (who is monitoring/coordinating hedge cutting to help conserve Brown Hairstreaks in the Noar Hill -Selborne areas) starting in February 2013 when I first noticed the hedges had been flailed. Sorry its a bit jumbled but I have cut and pasted them directly from my e-mails. If you start at the bottom and work up it should be in date order. Sorry to clutter your diary but please get this deleted after it have been read.
mike skittrall27/09/2013 PhotosTo: Clive Wood
From: mike skittrall (
mikeskittrall@hotmail.co.uk)
Sent: 27 September 2013 18:00:29
To: Clive Wood (
clivepwood@btinternet.com)
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Hi Clive, thanks for the feedback, its great news and sounds like this issue will now continue to move in the right direction. How does one get involved in the winter egg count? Attached for your interest is a photo of the female we saw at Noar Hill on 30th August.
Regards,
Mike
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From:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
To:
mikeskittrall@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Fw: Brown Hairstreaks at Noar Hill
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 09:42:51 +0100
Mike, I have discussed Mark T’s report with Rob Nicholls of the SDNPA and Dan Hoare of BC and attach Rob’s reply. The lease on Charity Farm was terminated (I believe) a year or so ago and it seems as if the interim managers may have trimmed the hedge in the way reported by Mark. The good news is that the new manager is a GWCT ecologist with an understanding of Brown Hairstreak requirements and the hedge will be better managed in future.
I’ll meet Francis and Rob soon and take a look at the hedgerow myself.
regards
Clive
From: Rob Nicholls
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 12:23 PM
To: 'Clive Wood' ; 'Francis Buner'
Cc: 'Dan Hoare'
Subject: RE: Brown Hairstreaks at Noar Hill
Hi Clive,
Good to hear from you, I’m fine thanks, hope you are too.
This was a well timed email. I met up with Francis Buner (the on-site Ecologist from GWCT who is doing the Grey Partridge reintroduction project on the Rotherfield Estate) the week before last to look at Charity Farm to talk about the direction of management for the next 10 year period. I told him about you and your work, he is keen to meet up with you and have a chat about the monitoring work you have been doing.
It sounds like this hedge might be owned by Charity Farm, and will in the future be cut on rotation (Francis is aware of the Brown Hairstreak requirements)
Perhaps the three of us could meet up at some point?
Francis, just a thought, have you met Mike Morton the Noar Hill site manager before, I’m sure he would like to meet you. Also Chris Webb the National Trust Warden at Selborne Common, he has a very good idea of how far North within Selborne species including Brown Hairstreak and Duke of Burgundy have spread. Is it ok with you if I invite them along too and have a jolly nice meeting.
Many thanks,
Rob.
mike skittrall16/09/2013 To:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
From: mike skittrall (
mikeskittrall@hotmail.co.uk)
Sent: 16 September 2013 13:09:50
To:
clivepwood@btinternet.com (
clivepwood@btinternet.com)
Hi Clive, hope you are well. I don't know if you are aware of Mark Tutton's report for Sunday 15th September from Noar Hill in the sightings page of Hants and IOW branch of Butterfly Conservation. He has made a great egg count, but the downside is the hedge cutting he mentions. Just thought I would bring it to your attention. This year has seen much better numbers of Brown Hairstreaks at Noar and it would be fantastic if their recovery could continue.
Regards,
Mike
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From:
mikeskittrall@hotmail.co.uk
To:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
Subject: RE: Brown Hairstreak Noar Hill
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:44:07 +0000
Hi Clive, I am glad that your visit to Selborne revealed that the hedge trimming carried out in the Noar Hill area, mainly fitted the criteria required for rotational management of these hedgerows, and that there had not been too much hard cutting carried out.
Thank you for letting me know the outcome and hopefully because of this management and awareness the Brown Hairstreak will become more common in this area of Hampshire. I had to travel to Shipton Bellinger in order to see this beautiful butterfly
in 2012 although I am 90 percent sure that a Brown Hairstreak flew past me at Noar Hill in Aug. 2012 and I know that other BC members saw them here in 2012.
Perhaps farmers and landowners cut hedgerows aggressivly because they always have, and are unaware of the damage caused as in this case to a fragile population of Brown Hairstreak butterflies.
Thanks and Regards,
Mike
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From:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
To:
mikeskittrall@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Re: Brown Hairstreak Noar Hill
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:07:14 +0000
Hi Mike. Just to let you know that I visited Selborne this morning and had a good walk along the tracks and lanes around Charity Farm with Rob Nicholls, the local SDNPA Ranger.
The hedgerows adjacent to the lanes in the area have certainly had a hard cut and the machinery has also damaged the verges in several areas. Overall however I was pleased to note that most sides facing into the fields had either been left untrimmed or only lightly trimmed. Most of the internal field hedgerows had also been left untrimmed. This pattern is consistent with the necessary rotational management of blackthorn-rich hedgerows and on a wider landscape scale there is still an abundance of good quality blackthorn in the area.
I also noted some evidence of good scrub management along some of the rougher tracks around Charity Farm including the cutting back of old blackthorn. This is important since female Brown Hairstreaks tend to favour young, fresh suckering growth over old growth. Less encouragingly someone had driven a farm vehicle over newly planted blackthorn-rich hedgerow whips whilst other plants had been suffocated by competitive grasses that hadn’t been cut back. A job for another work party.
Rob has spoken with the relevant estate manager and another organisation who are helping out with some farm planning work. Both were aware of the importance of the area for the Brown Hairstreak and the need to manage hedgerows on rotation.
I hope this has helped put both our minds at ease. Thank you very much for your interest and for alerting me to the trimming. I still don’t quite understand why so many farmers and landowners put so much time, money and labour into aggressive hedgerow management and I’m not sure I ever will.
Thanks again
regards
Clive
From: mike skittrall
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2013 5:55 PM
To:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
Subject: RE: Brown Hairstreak Noar Hill
Clive,
I will be very interested in the outcome and hope that all will be ok.
Regards,
Mike
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From:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
To:
mikeskittrall@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Re: Brown Hairstreak Noar Hill
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 10:42:30 +0000
Mike, just to let you know that I have alerted the SDNPA Ranger to the hedgerow work and my National Trust contact in the village. We will be speaking with the local land manager shortly and paying a site visit on the 13 March.
I’ll let you know more after the 13th but thanks again for raising the matter.
regards
Clive
From: mike skittrall
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013 8:50 PM
To:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
Subject: RE: Brown Hairstreak Noar Hill
Clive,
It was in the lane that runs between Homestead Farm and Charity Farm, both sides of the RH hedge up to the verge on RH side where you can can park when it is dry. The tracks from the lane up to the Reserve were untouched.
Hope all important areas as shown on the map are unaffected, but I just felt this should be flagged up.
Regards,
Mike
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From:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
To:
mikeskittrall@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Re: Brown Hairstreak Noar Hill
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:52:44 +0000
Mike, many thanks for reporting this, much appreciated. I was not previously aware. I will raise the issue with Rob Nicholls who is the South Downs NPA Ranger for the area. I’m also hoping to visit the area later this month or next with Dan Hoare of Butterfly Conservation.
It would be helpful to pin down exactly where you saw the severe hedge trim. I attach a map of the area: is it the lane between Homestead Farm and Charity Farm or the track that leads into the Reserve from that lane? If so, can you recall which side of the lane/track was cut etc?
Many thanks
Clive
From: mike skittrall
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013 6:02 PM
To:
clivepwood@btinternet.com
Subject: Brown Hairstreak Noar Hill
Hi Clive,
I recently visited Noar Hill and could not help but notice that some of the hedgerows along the lane adjacent to the Noar Hill reserve have been cut severely.
I recently noticed in the species conservation section of butterfly conservation that it says that this practice was to be reduced and be carried out less severely with the cooperation of local farmers in order to assist the Brown Hairstreak to regain its footing in the Noar Hill area.
I am not sure if anyone else has reported this and wonder what the knock on effect will be for the Brown Hairstreak and the 2014 egg survey.
Regards,
Michael Skittrall
Once again sorry to clutter your diary, I will probably get a ticking-off for this, but think its best recorded,
Regards,
Mike