The story from North Wales
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Helen Bantock is a
member of North Wales Branch as well as the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch. Although she lives in Crouch End in North London, a lot of her time is spent at Harlech in North Wales. In 2007, she volunteered to look for elm and White-letter Hairstreak around Harlech for our project. It was a big learning curve as she had not previously seen
the male activity around the treetops that we were encouraging people to look for. Helen with her son Tristan first looked for elm around Crouch End, where they had their first White-letter 'experience' early in the flight period.
WHITE LETTER HAIRSTREAKING IN SH61 AND SH62 AND IN HARLECH IN 2007
On the 11th June 2007 the weather was poor in London but a pair of spiralling White-letter Hairstreaks emerged at the top of a sycamore next to the Parkland Walk elms in Crouch End at 4.15 pm, when the sun emerged briefly. The first sighting there was on 8th June but by early July, the butterflies had become very torpid.
Therefore with the absence of any recent
records in Harlech, it was difficult to guess at the flight season. In 1984,
White-letter was recorded in Merioneth in the Coed Maentwrog SH6541
on 2nd August, but this may have been well on in the season.
Further north, White-letter are seen in the Greenfield
Valley in Holywell, Flintshire (SJ184761). Again, activity there has
usually been recorded as nectaring on Hemp Agrimony.
I am
very grateful to Brian Roberts, as he let me know as soon as he saw
White-letter in the Greenfield Valley. This was on 16th July 2007:
"We had a brief spell of sunny weather this afternoon and I went
into the valley, I was looking at the area where we have most
sightings of the White-letter Hairstreak, I saw two very small
butterflies flying at the top of a Sycamore on one or two occasions,
the tree is very close to where we see the White-letters so it could
be that they were White-letters, unfortunately the clouds came over
the sun went in and it started to rain-typical, when we get any
better weather I will have another go and will let you know the
results. The other thing was that the butterflies concerned did not
appear to have the silvery grey wings of the Purple
Hairstreaks"
On the 18th July 2007 he reported:
"Sue and I went in to the valley this morning as there was quite a
bit of sun and we saw 1 White-letter nectaring on Hemp Agrimony
and 5 others at the top of the Sycamore and three of them flew over
us. This is the largest number we have seen on the site."
As White-letter were seen in Shropshire at the end of
June, I was especially hopeful that I might see them shortly after
that.
In fact, the weather at the end of June was abysmal in
Harlech. I had managed to look at the Barmouth monad on the 17th
June, when it was warm and sunny and I also looked at my local elms
in Harlech then, but neither yielded any positive results.
I
made 9 visits to SH61 and SH62 between 15th July and 18th July.
The two positive sightings were in Barmouth (10 km
elms) on 7th July and 16th July 2007.
7th July 2007:
Sunny but windy, temps 18-19 deg C. Nil at the estuary
SH61 monad. But around 11am at SH611163 I watched a large lime tree,
placed in between two elms with a few more straggling elms down the
bank. I soon saw a Holly Blue flying across and then, briefly, a
small dark butterfly at the top of the lime tree canopy.
16th July 2007:
Barmouth SH611163. It
was dull initially but sunny by 10am and quite hot-20degC. Again nil
at the estuary monad, but I arrived at SH611163 just on 11 am, and
the sun was intermittent, but quite strong. In 20 minutes, I had
four or five sightings of dark butterflies at the top of a big lime
which overlooks the elms. There is another lime behind it and a
sycamore and ash but no oak nearby. The butterflies had the typical
hairstreak fidgety flight, but I saw no spiralling. I watched one
disappear into the leaves of a branch below the crown of the tree
and re-emerge briefly, but then it all went quiet and nothing more
happened in the next 45 minutes. As I was watching, a Holly Blue
flew across, lower down, but it was unmistakeable in flight and
colour and not what was carrying on in the treetops. I also saw a
Speckled Wood-again, low down and flying through.
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Elm at 10km level
16th July 2007, SH611163 - elm in Barmouth where wlh seen at 10km level - possibly first record in area since before 1970?
© photo: Helen Bantock |
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Elm at 10km level in SH62
31st March 2007, SH606226 - four big elms in flower-look to be at least 80 years old just above the valley bottom at 168 metres near Pont Fadog in Dyffryn Ardudwy
© photo: Helen Bantock |
Elm at 10km level in SH62
31st March 2007, SH606226 - a few yards away, down the bank, there was some more spindly growth of four or five boles -looked like suckers. These were also in flower.
© photo: Helen Bantock |
The
site at Pont Fadog is at 158m and it always seemed cloudy and cool,
so I only managed two visits. I later found some roadside elm in
SH62, but on 18th July 2007 there was no White-letter activity
seen. The weather deteriorated again from the 18th - 22nd July. It was
quite difficult to monitor two squares with so little background
information. However, next year I shall have a better idea of when
and where to start looking .....and I won't forget my telescope!
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Elm at 1km level in SH61
6th May 2007, SH633171
© photo: Helen Bantock |
Elm at 1km level in SH61
6th May 2007, SH633171 the view from layby!
© photo: Helen Bantock |
The monad elms in SH61 along the estuary are very spread out
and there are several trees which could be used to territorial
advantage.
(Post note: Unfortunately the county recorder
can not accept these records as being definitely White-letter
Hairstreak until Helen sees one perched because there have been no
records from the area for such a long period of time.)
Helen Bantock
October 2007
