A whole lot of finger crossing

Mother Shipton moth (Callistege mi) by the A41 on 12^th May 2016

Yikes! Where did the last 12 days go?! Although butterfly numbers are low and late, I still seem to have spent inordinate amounts of time devoted to them. Last Monday, the 9^th, as part of the preparations for Duke of Burgundy (re)introduction, I scoured Roughdown Common and Bovingdon Brickworks for representative foodplants (Cowslip and Primrose) that females might choose for egg laying. It was then a case of labelling, photographing and mapping them all with a view to returning every 2 weeks to capture (photograph) their progress. The idea is that we’ll then have evidence to show that the sites can support the larvae right through to pupation….so long as these foodplants remain lush and edible (rather than desiccate in sun or drought). Fingers firmly crossed, prayers dispensed and mind set to "optimistic"!

Pyrausta aurata  (Small Purple and Gold or Mint Moth)  Roughdown 16/5/2016

Dingy Skipper, Brickworks, 12/5/2016. A male, indicated by the dark scent/sex-brands running through the forewings. These contain the androconial scales used during courtship

What else? Well, having religiously visited the A41 Bourne End/Boxmoor junction every weather-appropriate day since the beginning of May, the first Small Blues took flight on the 12^th. Just 3 of them and they were feeding feverishly on Grass Vetchling, Common Mouse-ear, Red and White Clover, Cowslips and Buttercups. Despite having no influence whatsoever on the survival of these little creatures, it hasn’t stopped me willing them through the winter, hoping all those tucked away larvae stay safe, and I felt as though I were greeting dear friends returned from a perilous adventure. I was so pleased to see them. Incidentally, 60-70% of the Kidney Vetch we planted at Roughdown and the Brickworks has taken, so, once again, fingers crossed for the future.

The best bird of the last week was the arrival of a Lesser Whitethroat jangling/rattling away at the western edge of the Brickworks. I wonder if it’s the same bird that turned up last year?

Not a Lesser Whitethroat but one of the many singing male Blackcaps around the Brickworks. This one hiding in a mess of Buddleja on Monday

On the botany front, I found a new patch of Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) at the Brickworks. This, along with plenty of Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria), Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) and copious Bramble (Rubus fruticosus) is surely going to be tempting to any half-sane wandering Grizzled Skipper (a rare and restricted species in Herts and absent from BMT land). You guessed it, fingers firmly crossed.

Finally, I walked the Brickworks late afternoon yesterday. The Common Blue butterflies have yet to emerge and there’s still no sign of Brown Argus. The latter theoretically emerges the first week of May but my first sighting last year was the 10^th. This year, I’m anticipating that they’ll be slightly late but we’re definitely getting to the end of the window of expectation. All I can do is stay optimistic and hope for the best (no more fingers left to cross!).

If you build it, he will come

Hemel & Bovingdon (BMT): I’m fairly certain that the Box Moor Trust didn’t hear whisperings in the cornfield à la Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams. There is no predestined certainty here but the passionate hope is that by creating a habitat suitable for the rare Small Blue butterfly, it might just wander on over to Trust land and find a safe haven.

Yesterday morning, 4 of us pulled on our wellies and got properly muddy planting Kidney Vetch at Bovingdon Brickworks. This was the second morning of furious autumn industry. At the end of November, more than half a dozen enthusiastic helpers (from trustees, staff and volunteers) had planted some 350 Kidney Vetch (KV) seedling plugs and sown KV seeds at Roughdown Common. Across both locations, the plants need to survive rabbits, slugs, frost and anything else that might get thrown at them this winter. Then, in the spring, they need to bed in, germinate and reproduce. If the plants and seeds manage all this then they might, just might, attract Small Blues to the sites. Forget a field of dreams, a vigorous patch of Kidney Vetch would do nicely!

For the complete Small Blue story, check out the “BMT Small Blue Project” tab above. If hope and the sheer longing to see rare and scarce wildlife recover were enough, we’d be guaranteed success. As it is, we’ll have to wait and see...

Where’s Wally?

Introducing Wally, the little larva of the Small Blue butterfly (Cupido minimus), with its nose buried in the head of a Kidney Vetch flower. A few weeks back, a female carefully laid her egg, rubbed her abdomen over the flower head (to stop any other females having a go) and 1-3 weeks later the egg hatched. Out crawled a tiny 1mm larva to gobble (as much as any 1mm caterpillar can gobble) the developing seeds inside the vetch. It grew and emerged only to plunge its head back into the nutritious flower head. The larvae are now between 5 and 10mm long with their heads buried and their butts permanently exposed. That’s the delicate and highly dignified point we’ve reached in the Small Blue’s life cycle, along the verge of the A41 in Hemel Hempstead.

These seemingly marooned and vulnerable grubs are attended to by ants. Andrew Wood kindly explained that the larvae and pupae produce a honeydew like substance which the ants feed off. In return, they offer some protection against predators.

During a couple of brief visits on Saturday and Sunday, I found 10 exposed butts. Here are 5 of them for a Where’s Wally challenge, starting with the easiest…