Biodiversity boosted - and hello rare butterfly!

There are three reasons why we at Greener Padbury were so overjoyed by the discovery of Black Hairstreak larvae in the Millennium Woods.

Firstly, this is a first for the Millennium Woods! There has been no evidence of Black Hairstreaks here previously.

Secondly, the elusive Black Hairstreak is on the GB Red List - which means it is endangered and is a protected species. It was in steady decline throughout the twentieth century, and since 2002, the species’ UK distribution has declined by 33 per cent, largely due to habitat loss.. There is hope, however: concerted conservation efforts are reversing this decline.

And that is the third reason for our delight. We are part of this conservation movement. When we commissioned an ecological survey of the woods in 2021 - effectively a health check - the conclusion was that a young wood such as this, one with an agricultural history, needed a helping hand to give biodiversity a boost. So this is what we've been doing - and introducing more structural diversity to the edge habitat, which in turn leads to plant and invertebrate (including butterflies and moths) diversity, is just one of our actions.

There have always been butterflies in the Millennium Woods - but not hairstreaks, So to have the rarest of them all is a win, and it spurs us on!

Since celebrating the presence of this precious pollinator, we've had further good news: there has been a sighting of a Brown Hairstreak butterfly laying eggs in the woods. It was found and photographed (see left) by Lorraine Mosolf who was doing a butterfly transect, Brown Hairstreaks are on the vulnerable list and further reason to carefully manage the sensitive areas of blackthorn so the butterfly eggs have the best chance of survival.

We have also recorded three scarce Mocha moths (right) for the first time in the woods and this is a new record for the species here. The larvae feed on Field Maple and the moth is found mainly in southern England.