Butterflies Everywhere!

 

I now have  a dog and I have to walk the smelly little bugger everyday come rain, wind, sleet or snow, luckily though the recent summer months have been kind to me and the weather has been good. That being the case I have taken him on some good walks and it was on one of these treks that I noticed the number of butterflies on the local nature reserve and the adjacent fields, butterflies that I was not familiar with.

And so I was off to e-bay to buy myself a butterfly book…Yes, I am a geek. What of it?

What I discovered was that my local area was playing host to some very nice examples and I was soon hooked on the whole lepidopterist malarkey but instead of using a net and killing jar I would use my camera!

What I found was that the plants that we human consider to be weeds, most butterflies consider to be dinner, either as caterpillars or as nectar sources and this didn’t just count for the butterflies it counted for the bumblebees as well.

I never realised that there were so many different varieties of bumblebee until I stopped to look at a patch of clover, big ones small ones black ones and brown ones…

The brown ones even let me look at their nest!

These I soon discovered were a species of bee called B.Pascuorum, widespread but like all bumblebees on the decline through disease, pesticides and habitat destruction, rather sad really as they are a very pleasant bunch once you get to know then a bit.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/identification-guides-and-keys/bumblebees/index.html

But anyway I am digressing away from the butterflies, the Fritillary butterflies soon disappeared and I was disappointed not to get some better shots of them but these were replaced by Tortoise and Peacock butterflies, I soon realised that the butterflies followed rather strict seasons and once their cycle was over they were gone

Rather than make me sad this ever changing state of play with what was available to see and what was yet to come had me enthralled!

Common Blues were soon to be seen as were Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers, Ringlets and day flying Burnett Moths.

Everyday the dog walk would show me something new, something special. One day I arrived to find a host of Dragonflies, these I suspect were there for the same reason as myself, the butterflies, the small ponds play host only to a few amphibians and a some spiders that hunt upon the surface meniscus, they are probably too small to support their breeding, so I expect they were simply feeding here!

It seems that you cannot keep anywhere secret!

And Dragon Flies were not the only predators that I documented as the summer moved along the spiders began to fatten themselves up ready for their breeding.

The biggest of which is also my favourite British Spider and one that is rather scarce, the Quadratus spider!

A true Goliath among British spiders and one that is a specialists in feeding upon larger prey objects such as the crickets, bees wasps and butterflies that abound on my meadow!

On the entire area I only found two examples of the “Quad” and each was a different colour morph as I found one in the greenery of the brambles and one upon a dead Dock plant.

It is said that it takes them about three or four days to change their colour to suit their surroundings…pretty damned clever if you ask me!

Something else that seems to abound on the edges of the woods are the Oak Gall wasps, the creatures that are responsible for Oak Apples The reproduction of the gall wasp is partly pure two-sex propagation, and partly pure parthenogenesis, in which a male is completely unnecessary. With most species, however, an alternation of generations occurs, with one two-sex generation and one parthenogenic generation annually. This process differentiates the various generations primarily in their appearance and the form of the plant  gall they induce.

How very strange and how lucky for me, I love Oak Gall Wasps as I use their old discarded Galls to make my own “perch bobber”  floats.

But that is by the by and not really anything to do with this little blog update, this blog update is about me, the dog and long walks in flowery meadows watching butterflies but also spiders, dragonflies, the occasional amphibian and also the  birds and the bees.

As August moved into early September The numbers of butterflies began to dwindle somewhat but my favourite butterfly of all the Spotted Wood peaked in numbers and began to show themselves in small gregarious groups that seemed oblivious to everything around them, only sun, sex and nectar being of any interest to them.

I also noticed a second flush of caterpillars on the fodder plants, as I said at the start of this article butterflies are very particular about where they drop their eggs, what we humans consider to be weeds, they consider to be lunch and that is the reason why many species are under threat, our gardens are generally not that good for them, nettles may be a nuisance to us but to certain types of caterpillars they are the best food ever!

And the best places for butterflies are what we humans consider to be worthless tracts of weeds and unmanageable scrub and that is the cloud on my horizon…

My flower meadow or “Bowden Houstead Fields” to give it it’s full name was once a section of greenbelt but it was taken over and used as a staging point for  the machinery and materials when the Sheffield Parkway was resurfaced a few years ago on the understanding that it would be returned to its former state when the job was finished.

Unfortunately people very rarely fail to disappoint and that being the case, BHF was not returned to how it was which over time has proven to be a good thing as it has allowed a whole new super vibrant ecosystem to evolve unfortunately it wasn’t returned to Greenbelt status either, it is now classed as ex-industrial former recreational land and that being the case the Fire Brigade have decided that it would be perfect to build on!

I believe that this was the plan all along, why else leave water points in place?

Regardless of the fact that it is supposed to be Greenbelt and the Council agreed to return it to its former status they are pushing on with a project that is in my opinion the thin end of the wedge. Very soon the whole string of meadows will be reclassified as “former recreational land”

The whole lot will go in increments leaving behind tiny fragments of what was once a really nice place that supported some fantastic urban flora and fauna, these tiny fragments will be called Urban Nature Parks and these remnants will be used by the Council as proof of how green their credentials are.

And the public won’t be able to stop them doing it as the Council uses all the tricks in the book to keep things under wraps until there is nothing that can be done to protest a decision.

Well I, along with a few friends will protest this decision and we will fight it till the end, there are loads of places that a Fire Station could be built within a mile or so of this spot…so why this spot? Housing for the tens of thousands of immigrant families that have boosted the numbers of the local population over the last couple years, with more set to arrive in January .

When this is all over, it is quite possible I will have a criminal record but I will have my conscience and I will be able to sleep at night knowing I did the right thing, I took the time and I signed the planning application as an “objector”

http://publicaccess.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=MRZU4KNYFY000

Will you take five minutes to fill in the registration form and add your voice to the objectors?

Or are you of the opinion that it is not in your backyard therefore none of your business?

Don’t think like that, please. I will fight for your green spaces if you will fight for mine, if you are like me and enjoy the beauty of nature I don’t care if you live in Timbuktu, just sign the planning application as an “objector ” stating that you object to the ruination of a piece of land that belongs to all the people of Sheffield for the sake of “progress”.

Anyway that is enough from me…Do me a favour, sign the bloody form…I really don’t want to face down the bulldozers when they roll down the hill…but I will if I have to.