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11 November 2008
Action for rare butterfly
Local people enhance habitat of the black hairstreak
The Action for Hairstreaks project will improve habitats at Glapthorn Cow Pastures and Old Sulehay Nature Reserves thanks to a £5,000 grant from BBC Wildlife Fund.
This follows a successful project - Help the Hairstreaks - that featured on BBC’s Saving Planet Earth television series last year, where one of the aims of the project was to set up groups of local people to take action for rare black hairstreaks by helping with monitoring across Northamptonshire.
The Wildlife Trust is the guardian of these rare butterflies at Glapthorn Cow Pastures, which was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of its strong black hairstreak colony. The Trust also aims to boost the population at Old Sulehay by harnessing volunteers’ enthusiasm to improve habitats in these special woodlands.
The volunteers will coppice scrub, and brush-cut and mow the paths to create ideal conditions. These habitat improvements will also benefit many other key species such as nightingales and pipistrelle bats.
Black hairstreaks are beautiful but secretive butterflies. The caterpillars need thick blackthorn scrub near sunny glades and paths. The adults fly around the top of oaks, coming down to feed on honeydew and the nectar of woodland flowers like bramble. They are protected and a ‘species of conservation concern’ in Britain. They are restricted by their specific habitat needs to only 35 woodlands between Oxford and Peterborough.
Tom Day, conservation manager for Trust said, “The key to this project is the support of local people. The Wildlife Trust relies on its network of dedicated local volunteers to help manage its 135 nature reserves. We are so lucky to have a good colony of one of the UK’s rarest butterflies in our county and grateful for the funding boost from BBC Wildlife Fund”.
Please see BBC coverage of the story here.