About the event

Brown Hairstreak butterflies are nationally scarce, with Devon remaining a stronghold. Monitoring the population across the county is therefore important, particularly as the decline of ash trees due to ash dieback reduces preferred habitat for the adult butterflies. Presence of brown hairstreak therefore indicates not only the health of the species but tells us something about the quality of our treescapes.

You can help this recording effort by taking part in this Saving Devon's Treescapes training event and becoming one of our valued citizen scientists.

This training event will be led by Jack Rivers from Devon Biodiversity Records Centre. You will learn about the brown hairstreak butterfly, its ecology, and how to search for and record its eggs. We will also explain how to participate in our monitoring programme throughout this winter and how to submit your all-important records, which are shared with Butterfly Conservation to be part of the national record. The survey season runs to the end of March (at the very latest).

Bolshayne Farm is a privately owned farm, and we are extremely grateful to John Walker for allowing us to hold the event here. John manages his hedges sympathetically for the brown hairstreak butterfly (and other wildlife) and in previous years many eggs have been found at this location. We are pleased to be able to collaborate with John and the East Devon National Landscape Saving Special Species Nature Recovery Project for this event.

Although the training part of the day will end at 1230, there will be an opportunity to stay longer and practice your survey skills to complete a survey at the farm under the skilled eyes of our Saving Special Species colleagues and volunteers. So if you think you might be up for that, do bring a packed lunch with you.

Final details about the event including the exact location and what to bring will be sent nearer the time. Please note that this event is aimed at adults and those brand new to brown hairstreak butterfly monitoring. No dogs please (except assistance dogs). The event will be unable to go ahead if it is raining heavily and therefore, we may need to cancel it at short notice. The session will involve walking across uneven, muddy ground, and handling prickly blackthorn.

For those who would like to learn a bit before the event, refresh existing skills, or if you can't attend but would like to be involved in recording brown hairstreak butterflies anyway, please see the recorded online training session Brown Hairstreak training - YouTube. If you already know what to look for, then please contact Lindsay (lmahon@devonwildlifetrust.org) to agree/register your survey areas and you can then start recording using our online recording platform: Treescapes (devontreescapes.com).

Saving Devon's Treescapes is led by Devon Wildlife Trust on behalf of the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum. It's a partnership project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as well as other funders. Read more about the project and find other ways to get involved here: Saving Devon's Treescapes | Devon Wildlife Trust

Photo credit: Kevin New