Last month I mentioned the Painted Lady, a particularly attractive and interesting butterfly that you may have spotted on your buddleia. This is one of the Vanessid family of butterflies, which also includes Red Admiral, Peacock, Large and Small Tortoiseshells and the Comma. The Painted Lady is the same size as the more commonly seen Red Admiral butterfly, and like that species it is a migrant which does not survive the winter in the UK. It is a strong flier and can hurtle around in warm weather making it hard to get a good look at its markings. But if you are able to study a fresh individual busy nectaring on a flower, you will see a deep orange/pink background colour, patterned with black blotches and spots and black wing-tip dotted with white. If the sun goes in, and the butterfly closes its wings, their undersides are revealed. These are even more beautiful with, as well as a bold pink band with black and white highlights on the forewing, a complicated pattern of varied buff shades separated by veins to create a subtle stained-glass effect on the hind wing. This is then complemented by a series of small blue “eyes” on the rear edge.

As a long-distance migrant that spreads northwards across Europe from North Africa, the numbers we see each year can fluctuate wildly. This spring saw good numbers and some think that this may turn out to be the best Painted Lady summer since 2009, when an estimated 11 million of them reached the UK. While in this part of the country it doesn’t yet appear to be a bumper year, there are still plenty around. What has struck me is the number of individuals that I have come across which are significantly smaller than usual – about the size of a Small Tortoiseshell. It’s possible that this is a result of the heatwaves earlier in the year. This might have caused the larvae to pupate more quickly than usual, preventing development to full size. I think it unlikely that lack of larval food plant is the cause, as the thistles that they favour are so common and widespread. The small Painted Ladies I have seen have still seemed to be strong fliers so it may not affect the ability of the species to continue its northward spread. The butterfly has been recorded in most parts of the UK and, in good years, gets as far north as the Shetland Islands. As one of only a small handful of butterflies recorded there, it must bring an exotic touch of north African colour as it powers across the rugged hills and moors.

Towards the end of summer, the reverse migration will begin. By a series of migrations across multiple generations, the species will head back to North Africa, from where it originated, with each generation contributing to the overall journey. The ability to fly at up to 30 mph and at over 500 feet helps it to cover large distances, to complete this incredible migratory voyage.

​Andrew Graham

We'll be looking out for the heathland birds and butterflies of the New Forest with Keith Lea, Consultant in woodland management and Vice Chair of Salisbury Natural History Society.

No dogs. Start time at Hale Purlieu 10am. Anticipated end time: 1pm

A mid summer walk in search of heathland butterflies, notably Grayling and Silver Studded Blue, heathland & woodland birds and heathland/bog flora. A moderate 3 mile circular walk within this beautiful part of the New Forest National Park.

Meet at the Nadder Centre for 9 am departure or meet at the National Trust Car   Park, Lady's Mile Rd, Hale Purlieu, SP6 2QZ for 10am start  What3words:///hardback.dices.cactus

Distance, Difficulty and Footwear - Please dress accordingly to the weather and bring water & snacks. Mostly flat walking but uneven.

If you would like to join us please contact us and let us know if you will be meeting us at Nadder Centre to car share or at the starting location.

On Sunday 12th July we are off to Dinton Beeches looking for butterflies and other flora and fauna.  We will take a leisurely walk around the tracks and rides of the woods looking for the varied butterfly species which can usually be found there at this time of year.

Meet at Nadder Centre for 11:00am departure or meet on the track on the south side of the Dinton Beeches part of the wood at 11:30am. OS: SU 007 348 What3words: ///grapevine.sulked.lighter

The expected end time is 2.30pm so please bring a picnic and drinks.
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If you would like to join us please contact us and let us know if you will be meeting us at Nadder Centre to car share or at the starting location.

At this time of year, there are many varieties of purple and violet flowers in bloom, and these attract many insects, especially butterflies and bees. This preference appears to be related to the way that they see light. While we see light in the red/green/blue spectrum many insects see it in the blue green and ultraviolet (UV) range. As purple and violet flowers, such as meadow cranesbill and meadow clary, naturally reflect more UV light, they will stand out in a sward, making them easier to spot by the insects.
 
Not only do many plants have flowers of a similar colour, many of those flowers are similarly shaped. Brown, black and greater knapweeds all have slightly spherical flowerheads topped with a purple flower. These are tall, tough plants that can be found in great drifts in rough grassland and on roadside verges. Easily separated from knapweeds by their spines, thistle flowers are nonetheless quite similar. There are many different species of thistle, adapted to different environments and with varied shaped and sized flower heads. Some have large upright flowers, others smaller or drooping ones. But all are recognizable thistle-like, just variations on the classic Scottish thistle flower. Thistles and knapweeds are members of the daisy family, and their flowers are made up of numerous individual florets, so they are known as composites. After flowering, the white or buff coloured seed heads, called the pappus, provide food for small birds, such as Goldfinches. As well as providing a great source of nectar for insects, thistles are the food plant for the Painted Lady. This butterfly can complete its life cycle within 3 to 5 weeks, given the right conditions, and comes to this country as a migrant from the Atlas Mountains. As the butterflies head northwards, successive generations keep the migration going until, during the best years, they may get as far north as Iceland before the final generation heads south again, perhaps using winds at higher altitudes to help them.
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There are good numbers of Painted Ladies around at the moment, so we may be in for a bumper summer. Look out for them on garden buddleia - another purple flower attractive to butterflies. Indeed, many of the garden plants we plant to benefit pollinators – nepeta/catmint, lavender, asters, borage, salvias, alliums – have purple/lilac flowers. But that is just the day flying insects. Moths are more attracted to the flowers that show up in the dark – white and bright yellow – for example, nicotiana and evening primroses. As always, variety is the key, so there are no hard and fast rules about what will attract insects to your garden, but these days many plants and seed packets indicate whether they are pollinator friendly to help guide us.

Andrew Graham

​We will be walking out onto Collard Hill where, as well as other summer butterflies and flowers we will hope to see the fabulous Large Blue butterfly which has been successfully reintroduced to this site.

Please contact us if you'd like to join the trip and tell us whether you'll meet us at at the site or at the Nadder Centre to car-share. No dogs.

Meet at the Nadder Centre for 10:30am departure or meet at 11.30am at the Ivythorn Hill National Trust Car Park south of Street, Somerset. OS:ST488340. What3words: ///timed.deck.dream

Distance, Difficulty and Footwear - We will be walking 3 or 4 km at a very gentle pace. Collard Hill is steep and the ground uneven so to explore it fully you will need to be prepared for and able to handle those slopes. Stout walking shoes and possibly a walking stick are recommended.  Bring a packed lunch and refreshments.

Anticipated end time on site: 2:30pm. Return to Nadder Centre by 3:30pm.

Let us know if you'd like to join us a field trip led by Caroline Longley, Conservation and Wildlife Officer of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

The reserve covers 71 hectares where the WWT are managing the transition of half of the land from prior agricultural usage to chalk grassland. Five butterfly banks have been made to encourage chalk-loving breeding pairs and the location is rich with birds and wild flowers.

Further information about the trip can be found in the Field Trips Details document.

Farmers deal with issues of succession as part of their job. Lately, it is the Family Farming Tax which has threatened a lot of family-owned businesses (not just farming) with unaffordable tax bills.

Another succession which we farmers deal with (and anyone with a garden) is Ecological Succession, which can be defined as ‘the gradual, often predictable process by which the structure of a biological community changes over time, replacing one group of species with another.’ It begins with pioneer species colonizing a new area and progresses through stages, often culminating in a stable "climax" community. Ponds are an obvious example, where a newly created pond with purely open water quickly gets colonised by aquatic plants which grow quickly to cover the surface with foliage and drop leaves, which eventually reduce the pond to a bog. The time it takes to go through these stages can be lengthened by human intervention, birds and fish (thinking Carp here).

Similarly, farmed grassland is prevented from rapid succession by regular cutting or grazing. Chalk downland, for example, has been maintained by grazing in a relatively stable shape for thousands of years, leading to a specialised rich plant and animal community. Cease or relax grazing and very quickly succession leads to long grass, over-competing specialist plants and, before long, scrub and trees take over. We need all these succession states to have the richest variety of wildlife. On either side of the Shaston Drove, we not only have variety of succession in abundance but we have extra variety of wildlife on either side; for example, on the colder north side we have Duke of Burgundy fritillary butterflies, and on the warmer south side, Adonis Blue butterflies.

At Chicksgrove, I have a species-rich hay meadow (created 25 years ago from a former arable field). This field has been kept in a stable state all that time by cutting it once at the end of each summer. The flora has increased in richness as new species, such as three types of orchids, have colonised. The drawback of cutting the whole field at one time is the decimation of animal life, so starting two years ago I left a strip uncut down the centre of the field. Straight away, succession kicked off with tussocky grass, suppression of the more delicate flower species and spread of scabious. On the positive side, the new habitat was perfect for rare and declining Marsh Fritillary butterflies, and a female found it straight away - probably flying from one of the Shaston ridge colonies - and laid hundreds of eggs on the scabious, the food plant of its caterpillars. As a result, in the course of two years, this spring there is a thriving caterpillar population.
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Peter Shallcross

This year’s long warm and dry summer has been mostly favourable for dragonflies and damselflies, which together are known as Odonata. In contrast to butterflies, many odonata species have long flight periods. The emergence of adults from their aquatic larval stages is not synchronised so, in the right weather conditions, some species can be seen at any time between March and September. As long as the nights do not get too cold, and there are no long periods of wet weather (when they cannot hunt), the larger dragonflies can keep flying well into the autumn. Warm, dry days and evenings will give them plenty of time to feed and mate. As the males often fight over breeding territories, and dragonflies may be attacked as potential food by the hobby falcon, by late summer they can look so badly damaged and worn out that you wonder how they keep flying. Unlike several species of butterfly, dragonflies and damselflies do not hibernate as adults. Eventually they will become too damaged, or a sharp frost will bring their lives to an end. By then they should have mated, and the females laid their eggs in a suitable water body. The resulting carnivorous larvae will then spend months developing underwater, before emerging as flying adults in the following summer. Unfortunately, extended dry spells such as we have had this year can dry up their breeding habitat and the larvae lost, so the “good” summer is not necessarily all good news for odonata.

At 57 species, the list of odonata recorded in the UK is about the same size as that for our butterflies. A number of these, with very exacting habitat requirements, became extinct last century. However, the list is undergoing a period of unprecedented change as, in recent years, a number of species have been discovered for the first time. Some of these have gone on to become breeding species. This is largely a result of climate change, which is allowing a number of insects to expand their range northwards through Europe and across the channel. Notably, this summer has seen increased numbers of the strikingly marked Jersey Tiger Moth being seen in southern England. Once only plentiful in the Channel Islands, since 1990 this day flying moth has spread north and east from its mainland strongholds in south Devon, and several have been seen in and around Tisbury. It has become sufficiently numerous to be added to the list of target species for the national Big Butterfly Count.

And now, news comes that a species of butterfly from Southern Europe has been spotted in the UK for the first time. The Southern Small White, which even on close inspection doesn’t look that much different to a Small White, a Green Veined White or, er, a small Large White, just makes life more difficult for the butterfly recorder. It’s easy to see why most of us lump them all together as “cabbage whites”.

​Andrew Graham

I really struggle during heatwaves. At home, I do all I can to keep the house cool and to make sure there is some shade into which we can retreat at the hottest time of the day. But, how is wildlife, which has evolved over long time periods to be adapted to our normal climate, impacted by the increasingly frequent hot and dry spells? Well, in numerous direct and indirect ways.

We will see in our gardens how fruit and veg may mature too quickly and drop fruit prematurely. In the field, this can mean that crops of berries, nuts, and fruits that birds and animals normally rely on in autumn, may be gone by the time they need them. Although we can water our wilting garden plants and seedlings, in the wild they may perish, and a new generation will be lost. If the plants provide food for the larvae of insects like butterflies and moths become desiccated and die, the larvae won’t be able to grow sufficiently to progress to their overwintering stage, diminishing the numbers that emerge next year.

Anyone trying to dig into their flowerbeds will know how rock-hard the soil can get. Well, imagine if you rely on muddy soil with which to build a nest, or on digging into that soil to get food – as badgers, hedgehogs and many birds do. Life becomes very difficult for them. And things are just as bad for the creatures in that hardened soil, making it an inhospitable place. The worms and invertebrates that moles feed on are harder to find, so they must dig deeper to find moist soil and food.

While every creature needs to drink water in some way, amphibians such as frogs and toads rely on being able to keep moist, but as cool damp areas become increasingly rare, they risk death from dehydration. During heatwaves, water temperatures in ponds and rivers rise, resulting in reduced dissolved-oxygen levels, which in turn can kill fish. At the same time, the warmth encourages algal blooms, which can smother other wildlife and become toxic. If ponds dry out completely before tadpoles have competed their transition to froglets or toadlets, they will die.

Added to all these problems is the increasing risk of wildfires, or, even worse, deliberately started fires. This is a particular problem on our southern heathlands, many of which are close to built up areas, which seems to increase their vulnerability.

Obviously, it is not all bad news. Some species undoubtedly benefit from the heat and drought. But cumulatively, repeated heatwaves will favour the more resilient species, which can adapt in the short term or can move to more favourable locations and are able to recolonise later. Sedentary species, or those whose population take many generations to rebuild, may become locally extinct, eventually leading to a reduced flora and fauna of robust, adaptable species. Unfortunately, many of these are what we currently think of as pests. In future, our flora and fauna may be less diverse, less interesting, and significantly different to what we are comfortable with.

Andrew Graham

We have sent out an email to members to advise that we have had to cancel the Vernditch field trip this Sunday due to the high temperatures forecast. An alternative trip to Vernditch is being offered for Sat 19th July with Wiltshire and Dorset Butterfly Conservation group. This visit will also be led by Andrew Graham. Please get in contact if you are interested in finding out more information.