Colin Hawes reports that after many years absence the White Admiral butterfly is back in Bentley Old Hall Wood. He saw it on June 30th/July 1st. The wood was the favourite butterfly hunting ground of SNS founder, Claude Morley.
Many swallows, house martins and sand martins arrived early this year but seem slow to move back to their nesting sites. Although the majority of swallows and martins arrived at a similar date to those in 2002 and 2003, they have spent more time this year hunting over water bodies for insects.
A solitary small white butterfly Pieris rapae was reported in Suffolk on 17th March.
Good numbers of hibernating butterflies were seen on the Brecklands on 31st March. They included 82 small tortoiseshell Aglais urticae, 25 peacock Inachis io, 21 brimstone and eight commas Polygonia c-album
The SNS web site is at www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~sbrc/SNS.htm
The Suffolk RIGS Group, now known as GeoSuffolk’, has produced a series of attractive leaflets that outline sites of geological interest, geological collections and activities of the group. Available from museums or English Nature, who sponsored the leaflets.
A campaign to protect ancient trees from destruction in the same way as listed buildings has been launched by the Woodland Trust.Britain’s oldest tree is thought to be a 3,800-year-old yew at Ashbrittle church in Somerset.
A survey of water shrews on the River Gipping was carried out in the spring this year.Thought to be rare in Suffolk, water shrews usually inhabit the banks of slow moving streams and rivers. They are expert swimmers and live on a diet of shrimps and insect larvae.
Numbers of farmland bird species in the Eastern region fell by 9% from 1994-2002. A new report by DEFRA also shows a north-south divide with birds doing better in the north of England and Scotland than in the south.
The Garden Bird
Watch homepage is at www.bto.org/gbw and for a list of birds in your area based on your postcode go to www.postcodebirds.bto.org. BTO are also
conducting a window strikes survey until the autumn. Details are available from
BTO,
The Nunnery,
Thetford,
Norfolk,
IP24 2PU,
telephone 01842 750050 or by following links on the
Garden Bird Watch homepage, address above.
Colin Hawes, Rivis Vice President and stag beetle expert, has presented a paper on stag beetle research at an International Conference on Saproxylic Insects in Riga, Latvia. Colin was sponsored by the Peoples’ Trust for Endangered Species. Others in the British party included a speaker on the noble chafer.
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© 2004 Suffolk Naturalists' Society
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