Help monitor one of Britain’s most scarce butterflies at Exeter event

Published: 10 January 2023

There’s an opportunity to play a part in protecting one of the country’s most scarce butterflies by taking part in a training day in one of Exeter’s Valley Parks next week.

There are still places left in the Brown Hairstreak Butterfly Monitoring training event on Monday 16 January at Mincinglake Valley Park.

The two-hour training session gets underway at 1.30pm and places can be booked online at the Eventbrite website https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/464934761387

The training is being organised by Saving Devon’s Tresscapes, an initiative led by Devon Wildlife Trust. Devon Wildlife Trust manage the six City Council-owned Valley Parks in Exeter, including the Mincinglake site.

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.

A presence of brown hairstreak indicates not only the health of the species but tells us something about the quality of Devon’s treescapes.

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

The training event is one of several this season and will be led by Jack Rivers, Devon Biodiversity Records Centre. Those attending can learn about the brown hairstreak butterfly, its ecology, and how to search for and record its eggs.

Organisers will also explain how to participate in the monitoring programme throughout this winter and how to submit their all-important records, which are shared with Butterfly Conservation to be part of the national record.

Final details about the event including the exact location and what to bring will be sent nearer the time.

This event is aimed at adults and those new to brown hairstreak butterfly monitoring. No dogs are allowed except assistance dogs. The event will be unable to go ahead if it is raining heavily and therefore, may need to be cancelled at short notice. The session will involve walking across uneven, muddy ground.

For those who would like to learn a bit before the event, refresh existing skills, or if they can't attend but would like to be involved in recording brown hairstreak butterflies anyway, there is a recorded online training session available at https://youtu.be/mPlHOlUdk6g.

For those who already know what to look for, please contact Lindsay (lmahon@devonwildlifetrust.org) to agree/register their survey areas and then they can start recording using an online app https://devontreescapes.com/brownhairstreak

Further Brown Hairstreak Training Events are being held later in January and early February in other parts of the county.

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 on the Devon Wildlife Trust website at https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/what-we-do/our-projects/saving-devons-treescapes