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12-Dec-2024
I was delighted and very grateful that nine volunteers turned up today and they all worked like Trojans. We had three brush cutters running (including two of our brand new ones) which meant we also had a lot of raking; and while that work went on to reduce the vegetation height on Triangle Bank (if you recall we could not have sheep grazing on there this winter for lack of secure fencing); others were removing bramble and old man's beard from the bund behind our oldest scrape (with mattocks and forks) and creating bare ground for wild flower seed to germinate. Lorraine brought c55 Horseshoe Vetch plants and some went into the bund (after bramble removal) and the rest in the grass between scrapes in the Upper Field.
Sarah brought some wonderful brandy enriched, home-made mince pies and I supplemented them with chocolate biscuits. Perhaps we burned off enough energy to make all that eating sensible, but it was certainly very pleasurable. This task was a postponed event from Sunday 8th, when the storm was raging, and we definitely had a day of far better weather. We worked so hard and had such a good time that we hardly noticed the chilly drizzle. Even better we made a considerable difference to the site and improved it in many ways for next season's butterflies (etc).
Our next task at Holtspur is on Sunday Jan 12th - see Events for detail.
Nick Bowles
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03-Nov-2024
At Holtspur Bottom today 10 volunteers planted 2 Elms (for White Hairstreak) and 17 Horseshoe Vetch (for Chalkies). We weeded parts of the bunds behind the scrapes and we cleared a further area of Triangle Bank of some of the summer growth and scrub. Very grateful thanks to the 10 and especially Sarah who brought a lovely apple and cardamom "Cake for the Break". An idea we think should become an institution!
Help us with conservation work here on Sunday 8th December. See the events page for detail of that and all tasks.
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03-Nov-2024
At Members' Day we announced that we would present Paul Huckle with the Frank Banyard award for conservation when we next saw him. That was today when he was presented with a Lewington print by our outgoing Chair (on the right). As Paul said, "All I had to do was 30 years of unpaid work!" Congratulations and thank you very much from the UTB Paul.
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24-Oct-2024
A consultation on the Draft Oxfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy has been published.
One of the habitats in the species priority list is Juniper, and there are also several butterflies and moths on the list.
All documents can be downloaded from the link below, including a Word document of the questions in the online survey. The consultation is open to 1st December.
It is worth spending time reading through them, and using the interactive map of potential nature recovery sites to leave comments and questions.
letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/lnrs-phase3-consultation
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14-Oct-2024
Yesterday at Holtspur Bottom eight volunteers planted 3 Oaks (for Purple Hairstreak); 8 first year rosettes plus hundreds of seeds of Dark Mullein (for Striped Lychnis), grown by Andrew; and 175 Horseshoe Vetch (for Chalkies) grown by Sarah. We also cleared Triangle Bank of some of the summer growth, as the 22 sheep on site can't graze this section. It has inadequate fencing as our session to repair fencing attracted too few volunteers. Very grateful thanks to the 8 and especially Bronwen who fed us freshly home baked cheese scones at the break. To help us with conservation work see our task list at https://www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/event_calendar
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/holtspur_bottom
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19-Sep-2024
As sheep will be grazing the Holtspur Bottom reserve from Sunday 22nd Sept until mid-December the internal gates are locked and access is not possible. This has to be done because dogs have severely injured and killed sheep there in previous years when we allowed access. We apologise to those that like to walk there and hope you can see that a temporary autumn exclusion is a small price to pay for the amazing spring and summer flora that sheep grazing provides. The public footpath that runs along the top (northern) edge of the reserve remains open.
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17-Sep-2024
The Autumn 2024 edition of Hairstreak is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Newsletters/newsletter123.pdf
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08-Aug-2024
The 2023 Dingy Skipper Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/DingySkipper_Report_2023_ASpragg.pdf
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13-Jul-2024
The 2023 Green Hairstreak Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/GreenHairstreak_Report_2023_ASpragg.pdf
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07-Jun-2024
The Summer 2024 edition of Hairstreak is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Newsletters/newsletter122.pdf
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28-May-2024
Anybody who attended the moth ID session at Aston Rowant NNR on 25th May and who didn't get a printed identification guide can download it from the attached link.
upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Downloads/Spring_Moths_Aston_Rowant_NNR_Guide.pdf
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21-May-2024
Advice on ticks has been added.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/health_and_safety
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09-May-2024
The 2023 Adonis Blue Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/AdonisBlue_Report_2023_MCross.pdf
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20-Apr-2024
The 2023 Black Hairstreak Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/BlackHairstreak_Report_2023_SHodges.pdf
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25-Mar-2024
The 2023 Chalk Hill Blue Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/ChalkHillBlue_Report_2023_NBowles.pdf
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22-Mar-2024
The old events and calendar web pages have been replaced by a new page called event_calendar. This allows easy switching from a list of future events ('List View') to a monthly grid of events ('Month View'). Note that if you change to type of event to display, your selection will be propagated if you change the view.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/event_calendar
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21-Mar-2024
The 2023 Small Blue Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/SmallBlue_Report_2023_ASpragg.pdf
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18-Mar-2024
The Spring 2024 edition of Hairstreak is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Newsletters/newsletter121.pdf
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16-Mar-2024
The 2023 Purple Emperor Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/PurpleEmperor_Report_2023_MRobinson.pdf
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11-Mar-2024
A new version of the UTB Surveys document has been uploaded.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Downloads/UTB_surveys.pdf
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09-Mar-2024
The 2023 Grizzled Skipper Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/GrizzledSkipper_Report_2023_DHastings.pdf
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25-Feb-2024
The 2023 Silver-spotted Skipper Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/SilverSpottedSkipper_Report_2023_TDunbar.pdf
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18-Feb-2024
The 2023 Grayling Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/Grayling_Report_2023_DSussex.pdf
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18-Feb-2024
Very grateful thanks to all those volunteering at Holtspur during this winter season. Once again your work has meant that the reserve is in wonderful condition.
Today, 10 UTB and 9 'Rough Around the Hedges' volunteers continued the transformation of the central hedge and a large part of that task for the UTB members was in transporting material cut from the hedge, off the grass in Upper Field, to store along the lower boundary hedge/fence line. It was remarkably warm there today with my car reporting 17C when I drove out and with two sightings of Brimstone as well it certainly felt like the last task of this winter.
However, we left the 'Rough Around the Hedges' team to finish off and it maybe that we need a small group to go back and clear some late cut material to prevent it laying on and damaging the grass and wildflowers.
I hope everyone gets to visit in the summer when the flowers and insects will be amazing.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/holtspur_bottom
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16-Feb-2024
The 2023 White-letter Hairstreak Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/WhiteLetterHairstreak_Report_2023_PCuss.pdf
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06-Feb-2024
John Thacker has produced an update to the iRecord getting started guide.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Downloads/iRecord_guide.pdf
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06-Feb-2024
The next UK Butterfly Recorders Meeting will be held via Zoom on Saturday 23rd March 2024. The programme for this event is being finalised and will include the usual updates on Butterfly Conservation's recording and monitoring schemes, including the announcement of the 2023 UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme results. The meeting is open to everyone with an interest in butterflies and butterfly recording and monitoring. Bookings are open via the link.
butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/uk-butterfly-recorders-meeting
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03-Feb-2024
The home page has been updated as follows:
1. The old social media icons have been replaced with new, smaller ones, and relocated to the top right of the page.
2. The menu bar has been changed. Items that were under the 'Sightings' tab are now under 'Butterflies', and 'Sightings' has been removed. A new tab 'Recording' has been added, incorporating some items from 'Conservation'.
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03-Feb-2024
The 2022 Annual Report of the UKBMS has been published. The Upper Thames branch of BC had the fifth highest number of transects (94, with 10 added since 2021).
ukbms.org/sites/default/files/downloads/UKBMS%20Annual%20Report%202022.pdf
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29-Jan-2024
Eight UTB volunteers helped the hedge laying team with the hedge separating Upper and Lower Fields, stashing cuttings to form a dead hedge at the base of those fields. Mark brushcut a further section of longer vegetation by the footpath. We saw our first butterfly of the year when a Peacock flew past in the surprisingly warm sunshine.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/holtspur_bottom
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10-Jan-2024
The 2023 Wood White Species Champion Report is available to view or download.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/Reports/WoodWhite_Report_2023_NBoard.pdf
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08-Jan-2024
19 volunteers, ours and Paul Heath's 'Rough around the Hedges' hedge-laying experts, were at Holtspur Bottom on Sunday 7th Jan. We removed the temporary fencing that kept the sheep from sensitive turf on the scrapes and stored it for next year, cleared the upper footpath of encroaching brambles and replaced all the out-of-date notices. Paul's team did a beautiful job of laying the hedge at the top of the Triangle Bank. You can see part of that lovely job in the image attached (compare with final image).
Thanks to Chiltern Rangers who lent us road pins to hold up the temporary fencing and to Colin, who volunteers with them, and took them back to the Chiltern Rangers depot.
It was a glorious sunny day. The reserve is looking absolutely great. Join us and see for yourself at the next task on Sunday 28th Jan. Details of this next visit and all conservation work in Events.
www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/holtspur_bottom
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