The changes in the butterfly species of Savernake Forest.
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 7:59 pm
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.
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.