Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Another Brown Hairstreak egg.... When the sun appeared this afternoon, I squelched my way around my local patch near Heathrow hoping that one or two butterflies might have been tempted out of hibernation. I wasn't fortunate on that front, but I ended up having a close look at a wild plum tree that was just coming into flower just in case it harboured any Brown Hairstreak eggs. I managed to find just the one, but it is notable that this tree is some way away on the other side of the M25-T5 link road from the eggs found on the blackthorn hedge back in January. I appears that the butterfly is even more widespread in this area than previously thought. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Peacock in St Albans. 12 degrees and sunny this afternoon with a hint of Spring in the air. Enough to encourage a Peacock out of hibernation in Mount Pleasant. However it seemed to be regretting its choice as it was perched on the pavement in a shady position. Luckily I didn’t tread on it and relocated it to a more favourable position. I do hope it does OK! [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
BHS egg return Prestwick Road Meadows. The blackthorn had been cut, winter is nearly gone and it was time to return the Brown Hairstreak eggs that had been rescued last year and have been sitting at the bottom of my garden for the last few months. Since our (Pete Fewell and I) last returning at Merry Hill the other week, we seen to have got the hang of it and we went quite quickly this time attaching approx 25 BHS eggs on 23 twigs and a further 2 blue bordered carpet moth eggs in a couple of hours. Special thanks goes to Aneel Odhwani, who joined us, we were very grateful of the extra pair of hands! That gave us a bit of time to have a look about the site, and we found another 10 BHS eggs. Things are looking good for this location, and hopefully we will see then matured later in the year. [Posted by Rick Vickers]
Millhoppers Reserve hits the Headlines. Completion of the new bridge at our Millhoppers Reserve recently featured on BBC news. Click on this link to read more. Listen to Christine Ridley interviewed on Three Counties radio. Many thanks to Chris Hilling, Paula Reid, Christine Ridley and Peter Mellitus for all their hard work in getting the bridge completed [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Valentine's Peacock. I saw a Peacock at 12.20 today (14th February) on the Grand Union Canal towpath between Cow Roast and Dudswell SP962102. [Posted by Rikki Harrington]
Red Admiral - broxbourne school. A surprise and early first record of the year - while leaving the Broxbourne School car park, a Red Admiral flew into the car. After a few seconds exited fit and well, but very surprising given the wet weather. best regards Phil [Posted by Philip & Oliver MacMurdie]
National Moth Recorders Day Recording. National Moth Recorders day was held last weekend in Birmingham. There were some excellent speakers including Tim Blackburn from UCL who spoke at last years Herts & Middx Members Day. If you missed it and want to catch up, there's now a recording available on the BC website, available by following the link below National Moth Recorders Meeting 2026 [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Free Wildflower Seeds for Branch Members. The Branch is offering free native wildflower seeds suitable for butterflies and bees. The mix of 24 species includes some excellent nectar flowers as well as well as larval food plants such as Birds-foot Trefoil, Agrimony, Kidney Vetch and Yellow Rattle. They are suitable for sowing in neutral or alkaline soils and the recommended density is 3 grams per sq meter. Suitable for sowing this Spring in gardens or local green spaces Seeds are available free to branch members on a first come, first served. Contact malcolmhull@hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.uk Bee and Butterfly Wildflower Mix [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Pale Brindled Beauty at Southgate. 1 Pale Brindled Beauty at ASDA Southgate this afternoon - my second of the year at this site. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
First sighting of 2026 at Stanwell Moor. Good spells of sunshine and temperatures around the 11 degree mark locally today. After a longish (and rather muddy) walk around all the likely spots, I had almost given up on seeing a butterfly. However, back at the start I disturbed a Comma which was basking low down. I managed to track its direction, but the sun went in at a crucial moment and I couldn't work out where exactly it had landed. This meant I ended up disturbing it for a second time and unfortunately failed to find it again to record its image for posterity!. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Large White pupating. Berkhamsted - a week ago three Large White caterpillars were spotted looking for sites to pupate. One got squashed, but two made it as far as my grandchildren’s front door. Progress was slow - after 5 days the caterpillars had attached themselves with a silk girdle, but still had their caterpillar skin showing. After 7 days the first one pupated. I guess everything moving slowly due to the cold [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Merry Hill Brown Hairstreak egg search. Despite the muddy conditions and the problem with the road closure signs up a fantastic small group of people joined us for the egg search. We headed for the area we first recorded an adult on the wing as we did last year. The first eggs were recorded on blackthorn stands that had been clipped back before we could conduct an egg rescue there. The first 3 eggs were found low down on bits that survived the maintenance, I suspect a lot more eggs were removed here during the maintenance season. That said more eggs were found in the area searched which was left alone. We got to 17 eggs in this area searched with the remaining 3 eggs found in the area beyond the hedge-line towards Merry Hill Road. Eggs found with a green tinge noted of which looks like algae is confirmed by the superb photo's of eggs by Aneel Odhwani who attended. Awesome egg photo's thank you Aneel for those! Rick and a few others didn't get to find an egg but they all saw one. Rick saw the most though as he was doing the recording! Rick and myself returned after to find a few suitable spots for returning rescued eggs from Merry Hill. The first phase now complete but more to return at Merry Hill. Will keep you posted with that. [Posted by Peter Fewell and Rick Vickers]
Completed Work for the Grizzled Skipper at Waterford Heath. This is how the site looks now after the work has been done [Posted by Andrew Wood]
Enhancing Grizzled Skipper habitat at Waterford Heath. In the past two and a half weeks Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust in association with our branch of Butterfly Conservation have been doing a major piece of habitat restoration on the north section at Waterford Heath. An area that was once a stronghold for this rare butterfly had during Covid and after become overgrown with Italian alder, hawthorn, wild rose and dogwood that was too well rooted to clear to allow wild strawberry and cinquefoil (caterpillar foodplants) to recover. We agreed that drastic work was needed to clear this area, scrape off some of the topsoil and see if a major intervention can help this threatened butterfly. It all looks very muddy and messy and some roots remain despite the use of mechanical plant to extract roots. The scraped soil has been moved to a very barren area to create sheltered banks which we also hope will be beneficial to insect and plant populations on the heath. The first set of pictures show the area (about the size of two football pictures) before clearance and the second set below what it looks like at the end of the work. [Posted by Andrew Wood]
Brown Hairstreak eggs near Heathrow. After recording (on 13th August 2025) the first ever adult Brown Hairstreak to be found on the Heathrow River Colne Biodiversity Area (part of my local patch to the north of Stanwell Moor), I had arranged with the relevant team from LHR to join them for a winter BH egg hunt in the most likely part of the site. This is an east-facing hedgerow containing a fair bit of blackthorn, including some low suckering growth encroaching into the grassland. Over the course of a couple of hours between five of us we found eleven Brown Hairstreak eggs. This was an excellent result, and will have a direct bearing on how this bit of the site is managed in the future. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Red Admiral. Seen in a garden in Bishop's Stortford by Andy White [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Pale Brindled Beauty at Southgate. Male Pale Brindled Beauty at ASDA Southgate this afternoon - my first moth of the year! [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Butterfly artwork in Hatfield. If you go to Hatfield, visit the Queensway Subway in the Town Centre. Today the mayor of Hatfield, 'opened' the recently commisioned subway artshow to complement the existing mural. Features some lovely artwork by local painters of our Hertfordshire butterflies and well worth a visit. [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Butterflies of Southern Mexico - Ian Small. For those that missed the Zoom Presentation on the 21st January, it can now be viewed on YouTube. YouTube recording can be viewed here [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
Millhoppers Reserve footbridge. I am pleased to inform everyone that the footbridge at the Millhoppers Reserve is open and ready to accept the feet of all lepidopterists and other like minded folk. A good job as we now have quite a bit of water flowing in the stream! Huge thanks to fellow warden Peter plus volunteers Len and Phil who helped me with constructing the ramps either side of the bridge. [Posted by Chris Hilling]
