Short youtube piece on NT reintroduction in Bradenham Valley, S Chilterns, starring His Grace the Duke of Burgundy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ7cIBSJ...
Still Beating Skippers
All followers of His Grace will have enjoyed watching his attacks on Dingy and Grizzled Skippers on many occasions. However, it is far less often that we are afforded the privilege of watching him beat up the Large Skipper; in fact I only recall ever seeing this once before.
Yesterday (26th June), while surveying a site on the Downs at Storrington, I was only mildly surprised by the relative abundance of spring skippers still flying, bearing in mind how late this season is still...
Old Soldier
This afternoon I stopped off at Springhead Hill near Storrington, primarily to see how the Small Blue is faring. Numbers are much better than last year and females are still emerging, with two mating pairs seen.
What did surprise me, particularly so late in the day, was this geriatric male Duke, still taking on anything that crossed its airspace. The same individual was photographed a week ago, already looking bleached and well past its sell-by date. I'm pretty sure this is the same male I...
Farewell To The Duke
Yesterday (8th June) I performed my final 2013 count of Sussex Duke of Burgundy. For the ninth season in succession I have spent a great many hours surveying, monitoring and studying this species and, as in previous years, I would like to think that I have learned a little more about it. With 417 sightings logged, I'm pleased to report that on all Sussex sites His Grace survived the worst that the British weather could throw at him in 2012. Perhaps the best news of all is that the sun has shone brightly for more than two weeks, allowing the females an almost uninterrupted opportunity to lay eggs. 2014 could be a good year for the Du...
Fantastic Day
Not the best picture in the world I know but representative of the fact that I found Dukes virtually every step of the way today - this is at the top of Butser Hill in Hampshire 270m amsl in a howling gale!
As the season appears to be drawing to a close I thought I would spend a few hours walking all of the likely areas at Butser. When I turned up there was a strong cold north easterly wind blowing and although the sun was out it was cool. I headed down on to little Butser and was soon...
Making Hay ...
The spell of warm, sunny weather we have enjoyed through late May and early June is fantastic news for some of our rarer spring species. Duke of Burgundy, Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Wood White will all have had the opportunity to spend long periods out egg laying. As long as we don't see a summer drought, I'm optimistic that the numbers of these and other species will bounce back strongly next spring.
Although most Duke populations in Sussex peaked a week or more ago, the later sites on cool...
Sussex from Hampshire
To compliment Neil's photo of Hampshire from Sussex here is the reverse also taken yesterday, Harting Down is in the centre - Neil might even be there! Taken from Little Butser.
Journeyed right across Hampshire yesterday visiting Dean Hill on the Wltshire border, Bentley Wood then some sites around Winchester finishing at Ramsdean Down. Pleased to say that I only failed to see Dukes at Bentley Wood , but plenty of Pearl Bordered Fritillaries made up for that.
I manged to see...
Dukes On The Wane
Sadly, the Duke of Burgundy season is now on the wane and my 2013 survey of all Sussex sites will probably be complete by the end of next week. However, there are still some highlights to be enjoyed, such as the count of 9 males at Harting Down this morning (31st May); none were seen here last year. This site is mountain goat territory, and very seldom visited by anyone else, so it's a great place to escape from the crowds and just melt into the landscape. The views across the West Sussex/Hampshire...
Duke of Burgundy Reintroduced to Bradenham Valley
In the spring of 2011 the NT, in liaison with Butterfly Conservation and Natural England, carried out an officially-approved reintroduction of His Grace the Duke of Burgundy to two small and almost-adjacent chalk grassland sites in the Bradenham Valley, west of High Wycombe in the Chilterns. The butterfly had died out there circa 2000. Fortunately, the reasons behind the extinction have been identified and addressed, and habitat conditions have improved greatly. The two...
Hampshire Dukes
Got out really early today and didn't get home until 7pm! Made the most of the weather.... First call was magdalen hill down and it was pretty quiet as I was early but saw good numbers of green hairstreaks including six doing battle when two holly blues joined in - mayhem. Then went over to St Catherine's hill and was a bit disappointed - no downland species at all but good counts of peacock brimstone and orange tip.
I then visited an adjacent site I had been told about to check it for dukes. At first it did not seem very appealing with waste height nettles which caused some grief but I persevered and eventually found good numbers including a mating pair - this was a new site for me so very pleasing.
This site is 'open access land' and there seems to...
Counting Dukes
The last two days (25th & 26th May) have been pretty typical for me at this time of the year, involving a mad dash to try and survey all of the Sussex Duke of Burgundy sites as thoroughly as possible. Although numbers will take another season to recover, there does at least seem to be a viable population remaining in the areas I've visited so far; sometimes only just. That's quite a relief after last year's weather, but I do have doubts that the national tally will remain unaffected by the...
Dukes Launch 'Save Our Butterflies Week' In Sussex
I'm pleased to say we were blessed with decent weather and a good turn-out of both people and butterflies for the BC 'Save Our Butterflies Week' launch event in Sussex, held at Heyshott Escarpment on Saturday 18th May.
On the walk itself we saw 20 - 30 Duke of Burgundy without straying from the footpaths. I later returned to scour the site and counted 42, including 3 females. I estimate they are still a week to ten days from peak here.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the discovery...
45 Years On, and counting...
In 1968, when the world was young and heady, the 19th of May fell on a Sunday, as has been the case this year. Spring that year was slow, but sure, and gave the impression that sooner or later something mighty was going to erupt within the world of Nature. It did, on May 19th.
But May 19th 1968 began with school chapel, which dragged on till 10am. It was, of course, compulsory at boarding schools in that era – on pain of severe pain. Between chapel, and the equally compulsory but utterly inedible Sunday lunch, was an opportunity of less than three hours to go butterflying. Consequently, I ran, in heavy school shoes, dressed as a penguin in full school uniform, the two and a half miles to Marlpost Wood. I entered the wood at the...
I spent a pleasant afternoon in welcome sunshine walking across the ' north face' of Butser Hill in Hampshire. From little Butser I could see Neil's domain in Sussex. Despite there being some good habitat on Little Butser and on Ramsdean down I did not locate any dukes but I will be back to check again.
However the story was different at Rake Bottom where I came across at least sixteen individuals with at least a couple of females. This is much more like the numbers I would expect...
His Grace Takes to the Air
The BBC Natural History Unit will be filming His Grace the Duke of Burgundy at Rodborough Common, Stroud, this Friday, May 17th, for a forthcoming Springwatch Special on British butterflies and moths. We hope to be filming at Manor Combe and on Swellshill Bank. Apologies in advance if we hog the place... . Strangely, it looks as though this butterfly hasn't appeared on mainstream TV before.
I particularly want the piece to cover the love life of this little butterfly (he doesn't even ask her name, let alone speak to her father, propose on bended knee and get the banns read out in church. In fact, no one would want their daughter to associate with a bloke with the morals of a male Duke of Burgund...
Hampshire doings
I paid a visit to several areas around Butser Hill near Petersfield today and butterflies were very few and far between. Having explored some new areas that look very promising and found no dukes, it was very windy, I walked over the hill to rake bottom where I had bumped into Matthew last week. The weather was deteriorating but I manged to track down just one male in a shetered hollow. Taking the opportunity to sit and watch with my binoculars for the next two hours i picked up some details...
There is always hope...
Delighted to read that the slightly crippled male first noted in the main territory on Rodborough Common on Sat May 4th managed to find a mate and thoroughly express himself as a male Burgundy (see Simon Primrose's post of May 6th). When he first appeared on Sat 4th he could hardly fly, his wings were too soft. He had probably been unable to expand his wings properly as he emerged on a windy day and probably got buffeted whilst drying his wings, having...
First Sussex Duchess
Yesterday (11th May) I met up with Charlie Elder, author of 'While Flocks Last' (2009), an account of his quest to see all of Britain's endangered (Red List) birds. Charlie had travelled up from Devon, specifically to see the Duke of Burgundy, despite a highly dodgy weather forecast. When I set off from Worthing it was still raining, but by the time I approached Heyshott Escarpment via the familiar country lanes, the sun had appeared and it seemed a little less windy than of late. We spend a...
Duking In A Gale
Today (9th May) I started off at Rewell Wood, where I hoped to confirm that the Pearl-bordered Fritillary has finally started to emerge, particularly as I'm running a guided walk here this coming Sunday (12th May). I was mightily relieved to spot a freshly emerged male quite quickly. I then received a phone call from Mark Colvin, who had found a male Duke of Burgundy in a nearby woodland on the Norfolk Estate. It wasn't keen on flying in the strong, cool breeze, so it kindly waited for 30 minutes...
Mating Pair at Rodborough - Mon 6th May
Just a very quick note to say that I saw a mating pair of Dukes at the main colony site on Rodborough Common yesterday. The male had slightly deformed hind wings, that hadn't developed properly, and had apparently been first seen there 3 or 4 days previously. No other Duke sightings, just those two.
Masses of other butterfly activity though, but mainly restricted to this same small, sheltered, area in which the Duke colony is centred. As well as the usual common spring species I saw a Speckled Wood, about 8 or 9 Dingy Skippers and, if I said I had 40 sightings of Green Hairstreaks, I think that would be a gross UNDER-estimate!! Looks like they're going to have a great seas...
Mon May 6th
Here's my diary entry for today. Please note than on this day in 1990 I counted 96 Duke of Burgundies along the Noar Hill transect route (1 hr 15 mins), and only failed to get the century up because a butterfly photographer had displaced most of them from the best area (23 years on, and I'm still cross)... The pit names will mean nothing to you - suffice it that they all have names, some of them two or three.
Mon May 6th ...
His Grace at Rodborough Common, Cotswolds
Two males were seen in the main territory at Rodborough Common, near Stroud, yesterday, May 3rd. These were the first sightings there this year, and I think the first in the Cotswolds. Today was a little too windy there and only a single male was seen. I checked two other Rodborough colonies without success.
I have an accurate set of records of His Grace's appearance at the main Rodborough site (Manor Spur) since 1993 (earliest and latest dates are in italics):
1993 1994 1995 1996 ...
First of the year
I have been keeping an eye on the weather and paying short visits to Butser Hill over the last couple of weeks to search for Grizzled skippers. The south facing slopes here warm up very quickly and normally produce at this time of the year once we have had a couple of days of reasonable weather . I have found that Dukes normally appear here about 5/7 days after the first grizzly.
However it would seem that the earliest site in Hampshire is normally Noar Hill. So having seen a solitary...
Fortunes Of The Sussex Duke In 2012
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The following article is the 'Species Champion' summary for Duke of Burgundy, reproduced from the Sussex Butterfly Report 2012 - Issue 5, Spring 2013. How did the butterfly do on your patch?
In line with
most of our species, the Duke of Burgundy had a difficult time in 2012,
courtesy of the Great British weather. In the last couple of issues it has been
very satisfying to publish bar charts demonstrating year-on-year increases in
the Sussex population of this nationally threatened species....
Image Test
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Partly to test how large an image can be posted here, and also to get the juices flowing as the new season approaches, here's a pair caught in flagrante delicto on my guided walk at Heyshott last M...
The Dukes Of Heyshott - Here We Go!
To set the ball rolling, here's an article I penned for the Murray Downland Trust Seventeenth Annual Report (2011). It perhaps gives us hope that by working together and sharing ideas through a forum such as this, we can preserve this beautiful and charismatic butterfly for the enjoyment of future generations.
The
Dukes of Heyshott
The
Duke of Burgundy is one of the two most rapidly declining and threatened
species of butterfly in the UK, which together with the High Brown...
Burgundy Blog Launch
After the success of The Purple Empire and more recently, Ash Brownies, i had my arm (very easily) twisted into creating and designing a new blog for the beautiful Duke of Burgundy butterfly. The ideas and principles are the same: WE NEED YOU to contribute your sightings, photographs, trip reports etc from around the UK. With the flight period fast approaching (April/May) - hopefully with more favourable weather than all this snow we've been having! - now is a fantastic time to join the blog. As...
