The changes in the butterfly species of Savernake Forest.

[nomad]

I know we should look forward, but I cannot help looking back to days when the butterflies were more plentiful. Even in my lifetime I have seen and been greatly saddened by the lost of so many butterfly species in my favourite areas. Perhaps my local and favourite patch was the great ancient Royal hunting forest of Savernake in Wiltshire. Full of giant trees, it is the only U.K forest that I know of to have three ancient oak trees with girths over 10.5 meters. Its Victorian lepidoptera was well documented by schoolboys belonging to the Marlborough college Natural History Society. During the 1970s this large forest had a superb range of butterfly species that mainly occcured along a valley bottom known as Red Vein Bottom. This in the 1970s was open grassland with some hawthorn and sloe scrub with Spindle. When this was an exciting site for butterflies, the area was used for shooting by the private owner who employed a gamekeeper and others who kept the wooded grasslands open. Even then the Forestry Commission managed the forest. By the late 1980s the gamekeeper was gone and the area was left to itself, resulting in habitat change and most of the butterfly species disappeared. During the 1990s the Forestry Commission decided to clear the scrub. It was too late for the woodland butterflies and this clearance resulted in the lost of the forests only population of Nightingales. They then fenced the site and introduced Old Park Cattle, some of the grassland returned, but not the butterflies and ragwort soon invaded which killed some of the cattle and they had to be removed. They then bought in diggers and contractors who again cleared the valley bottom and also the remaining Spindle trees. Now dense Tufted-Hair grass and more Ragwort told hold and ruined the tiny fragments of short grassland which contained many rare Waxcap fungi species. Here are some of the butterflies that once occurred up to 1980 in the grasslands of Red Vein Bottom.
Grizzled Skipper
Dingy Skipper
Brown Argus
Duke of Burgundy
Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
Dark-Green Fritillary.
Marsh Fritillary.
Among the many moth species were populations of the Small Elephant Hawk Moth and the Chimney Sweeper.
Butterflies that occured then and are still found there today are mostly the common and widespread woodland butterfly species. The Marbled White has recently colonised this area again from a nearby population.
On the plus side the Silver-washed Fritillary has greatly increased in Savernake and from the 1980s the Purple Emperor was found to the south in reasonable numbers. My brother once even saw several male Purple Emperors together at a sap run. One year, I was dismayed to find that contractors had cut down all the Sallow along the column ride which was the main breeding area. I was so angry that I contacted and met with the Forestry Commission wildlife officer one very cold January day in the late 1990s and showed him the remaining Sallows and he promised to save them in this area, which he thankfully did. The White Admiral is very local in the forest and has greatly decreased. I expect some here may have a similar story to tell of your favourite butterfly areas.
Regards Peter.

[David M]

Poignant message, Peter.

Yes, I too remember those days when Wall Browns were common to the point of distraction inland and when Small Tortoiseshells were everywhere. So much has changed....and most of it NOT for the better.

[essexbuzzard]

A sad,but familiar story,Peter. I'm sure most East Anglian woods would have a similar tale to tell since the 1950's,when fritillaries,Grizzled and Dingy Skippers and Duke of Burgundies were common. That said,in my time(i'm only 40) many woodland species have prospered,with White Admirals,Commas,Silver-washed Frits and Speckled Woods all returning after extinction.

[nomad]

As David mentions, The Wall butterfly has certainly decreased in most inland areas. I remember the first time that I began searching for butterflies as a young boy on some wasteland by the river opposite my urban Wiltshire home. The Wall butterfly was the first species that I came across and was then common on the bare ground near that River. I still have the tick by that species in my ' Observer's Book of butterflies '.There certainly has been increases in some of our woodland butterflies, but there have been many important losses. By the time I began searching for butterflies in Savernake, two fritillary species had already disappeared . These were the Pearl-bordered Fritillary and the High Brown Fritillary, perhaps the most sensitive of our woodland butterflies to a cession of coppicing. In his great book ' Butterflies ' E.B. Ford wrote the following " I remember a afternoon in Savernake Forest when, following some hours of cloud, the sun at last broke forth and the High Brown Fritillaries came floating down in numbers from the oak trees around me "
It was not just Savernake that saw such butterfly losses, this sad scenario happened all over England. I remember visiting the well known butterfly locality, Hell's Coppice in Oxfordshire one sunny May morning in 1978. The little Wood White was abundant all along the rides where they were joined by Pearl-bordered Fritillaries and the Duke of Burgundy, all are absent now. I suppose what I am at a loss to understand is why was not more done to save them. Even in the mid 1990s this was still happening. To the west of Swindon in Wiltshire, Somerford Common was during the 1990s the habitat of butterflies that were known to be becoming rare. Here in this part of Braydon Forest the Marsh Fritillary and Duke of Burgundy flew in the more open parts of Somerford Common at that time. Yet the Forestry Commission did nothing to stop the planting of conifers or the encroachment of scrub, which were allowed to cover the main breeding area and the result these species quickly became extinct.
Regards Peter.