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Butterfly hunting expedition in Sussex pastures,
Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian.
I am on the left |
Yesterday morning I joined some of the craziest people in
butterfly circles for a day long hunt for butterflies in Sussex. The event was
designed to promote the start of the annual Big Butterfly Count which Sir David
Attenborough, president of The Butterfly Conservation Organization, kicked off
on Thursday.
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some of Team Purple Emperor: Dan Danahar, Neil Hulme, Trevor Beattie,
Richard Bradford, Colin Knight Martin Warren, Patrick Barkham |
We were divided into two teams – my Team Purple Emperor
scoured West Sussex and Team Silver-spotted Skippers searched East Sussex. We all
started at the Liz Williams butterfly haven on the grounds of Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton. Following
filming and photos we jumped into two Land Rovers and roared off. The objective was to count the maximum number
of butterfly species within our half of Sussex. This required good planning, knowledge
of the sites visited and the butterflies we were targeting at each location, luck with the weather and a good
driver. Good video here: http://t.co/0bvmrWK5
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| The two teams |
Team Purple Emperor had some of the country’s top butterfly people:
Dr. Martin Warren (CEO of Butterfly
Conservation), our team leader Nick
Baker (nature broadcaster, author and conservation specialist), Neil Hulme (Sussex BC Conservation adviser), Dr
Dan Danahar (Environmental Science teacher at Dorothy Stringer
School and Biodiversity Officer for Sussex BC), Patrick Barkham (Guardian
journalist on Environmental issues and author of The Butterfly Isles) plus Richard
Bradford (Headteacher at Dorothy Stringer School), Jan Knowlson (Ranger with the South Downs National Park and
our wonderful driver) and myself. The weather was really kind to us. Team
Silver-spotted Skippers were headed by Sussex Wildlife
Trust CEO Tony Whitbread.
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| Roe Deer in Southwater Woods |
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| Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus |
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| Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina |
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| Purple Hairstreak in flight (bottom of gap between trees) |
We got off to a great start during the traffic crawl out of
Brighton when Neil cried ‘Skipper’ then jumped out and returned with our first
sighting, an Essex Skipper. Our first stop was at Southwater Woods where we
searched in vain for a Purple Emperor, craning our necks hoping to see one flying
above the canopy of a master oak. White Admiral, Green-veined
White, Comma and Ringlet soon followed. In the meadow we crossed off Marbled
White, Meadow Brown and Purple Hairstreak and Large Skipper to give us 11
species. We then crossed the road to a Small Skipper site which boosted our count to 12. We then visited Botany
Bay on the Surrey border hoping for Wood Whites which did not materialise.
We did add a Dingy Skipper larva expertly found by Martin, plus Gatekeeper, Dark
Green Fritillary, Common Blue and Red Admiral. Eagle-eyed Martin also spotted a
stunning Elephant Hawk-moth resting in the grass. Our next call at Iping Common
brought us an expected Silver-studded Blue then we found our rivals had exceeded
our total so things got desperate. Both teams were tweeting their results and
our competitive nature ensured that we got focused very quickly. At one
point Team Silver-spotted Skippers tweeted a picture and claimed it was a
Silver-spotted Skipper. Our eagle-eyed experts quickly declared it to be a Large
Skipper and wondered what other errors our rivals had made. What made it worse was that they had the Silver-spotted
Skipper expert in their team! Much gloating at that.
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| Dan Danahar photographs Elephant Hawk-moth |
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| Dingy Skipper larva, Erynnis tages |
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| Elephant Hawk-moth, Deilephila elpenor |
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Elephant Hawk-moth is the centre of attention
photo by Dan Danahar. left to right:
Neil Hulme, Colin Knight, Richard Bradford, Martin Warrren, Jan Knowlson |
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Martin finds a Dingy Skipper caterpillar
photo by Neil Hulme. left to right:
Patrick Barkham, Richard Bradford, Colin Knight, Nick Baker, Martin Warrren, Jan Knowlson, Dan Danahar |
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| Nick Baker and Martin Wareen with Dingy Skipper larva at Tugley Wood |
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| Nick Baker photographs Small Skippers mating |
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| Nick Baker, Neil Hulme, Trevor Beattie & Richard Bradford watch Dan Danahar photograph Small Skippers mating. |
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| Patrick Barkham searches Mill Hill slopes |
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| Small Skippers mating |
On the way to Mill Hill we toured Arundel, checking buddleia
bushes for a Large or Small Whites which were strangely missing from our list.
Mill Hill gave us Small Heath and Small White, then we returned to Brighton. At Bevendean Down Patrick spotted a Chalkhill Blue and we then stopped at Hollingbury Park
where I had seen a White-letter Hairstreak two days before. No sooner had Neil said ‘check the thistle
flowers' than Patrick exclaimed ‘there’s one’ pointing to a beautiful specimen nectaring
on a thistle flower. This brought us to 22 species, one ahead of our rivals
with 30 minutes to go. We returned to the Dorothy Stringer Butterfly. Haven
where we bagged our final butterfly, a Peacock. The final result was 23-21, with much jubilation on our
part. Not that it was ever competitive ... Team Silver-spotted Skippers had 3 species that we
were missing so the total Sussex count for the day was 26.
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The teams discuss their results
photo by Dan Danahar |
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| Winning team leader Nick Baker crowned "King of Butterflies" |
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| Jan and Nick display winning butterflies (circled on poster) |
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| Team Silver-spotted Skippers |
Team Purple Emperor's winning tally: Chalkhill Blue, Common Blue, Comma,
Dark Green Fritillary, Dingy Skipper, Essex Skipper, Gatekeeper, Green-veined White, Large Skipper, Marbled
White, Meadow Brown, Peacock, Purple
Hairstreak, Red Admiral, Ringlet,
Silver-studded Blue, Silver-washed Fritillary, Small Heath, Small Skipper, Small White,
Speckled Wood, White Admiral,
White-letter Hairstreak.
Silver-spotted Skippers had these which we missed: Large
White, Painted Lady, Small Copper.
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