Help needed to survey the colourful and unusual chequered skipper

The recent press release from Butterfly Conservation gives details of one of their latest surveys which, in this case, they are hoping we can all help with.

It is on one of the most enigmatic of our butterflies, namely the chequered skipper, and despite all survey efforts it is still confined to a 30 mile radius around Fort William.

Interestingly, the mere mention of the chequered skipper takes me back many years when I was warden of my first reserve in Northamptonshire.

Amazingly, no less than 50 years ago I was standing in woodland rides on the reserve watching chequered skippers.

It was an outstanding National Nature Reserve for butterflies as on the mere 220 acres of mixed woodland and heath there were more than 40 species of butterflies. These included all the fritillaries and hairstreaks and I well remember counting chequered skippers along the woodland rides and at the same time the Duke of Burgundy fritillary.

With the interest in chequered skipper this year, more than one person has asked me how I could have been responsible for the decline and extinction of the chequered skipper in England! While this may be an exaggeration, I do know the reason for its decline.

We knew basically how to manage the rides but simply did not make them wide enough. The knowledge of how to manage them correctly was just not there.

Contrary to popular belief, me moving to the Highlands where the chequered skipper was still found was sheer luck on my part. Albeit I did organise the Reserve Wardens of those early years to do the first chequered skipper survey in the Fort William area and we found many so called "new" colonies that had not been known before.

Now Butterfly Conservation is taking up the challenge as they are using new information and computer systems to estimate just where new colonies could be. They forecast the existing colonies could be underestimated by 20 per cent and possibly more.

If you would like more information about the survey then contact Butterfly Conservation on www.butterflyconservation.org/chequered skipper.

The chequered skipper is on the wing from mid-May until the end of July. It can be seen on warm and sunny days, even during brief spells of sunshine, feeding on nectar plants particularly bugle, marsh thistle and orchids.

It is a relatively small butterfly and only about 3.5 cms across its wings. However, its small size is compensated for by the very rich colouring of the upper parts of the wings that are an intense combination of orange and brown. The photograph of the chequered skipper was supplied by Butterfly Conservation and was taken by Terry Dabner.

This survey of the chequered skipper – unusual as it is being restricted to such a small part of the Highlands – indicates the effort and finance needed to carry out such an in-depth survey.

The next stage for Butterfly Conservation will be to pursue people who own or manage the land to carry out future management with the exacting requirements of the butterfly in mind. This all means money and time so it is vital that we support this by becoming members of Butterfly Conservation.

By joining the national Butterfly Conservation based in Dorset you automatically become a member of the very active Butterfly Conservation (Scotland) whose HQ is in Stirling. Email them for information at www.butterflyconservation.org/scotland.

The Scottish branch produce their own newsletter, as indeed does the Highland branch, and we should all give them our support.

This year the Scottish branch is also surveying the speckled wood as this is a species that is spreading in the Highlands, having moved from the southern colonies a few years ago.

This could well be a significant year for butterflies in the Highlands and we now await with bated breath the impact of the cold and dismal start of the year.

Another species to look out for, even in gardens, is the comma butterfly .

Enigmatic swifts

Record of the week

RECORD of the week must go down to the first of the swifts coming in aroun the house and I have been watching for them every evening.

As mentioned in this column earlier this month, there are special reasons for looking at them this year.

There is just something about swifts that was immortalised by the now famous lines of the poet Ted Hughes when he wrote:

"They’ve made it again,

Which means the globe’s still working, the Creation’s

Still waking refreshed, our summer’s

Still to come".

As I scribble this they have only been in one evening and then only two of them. They were suddenly there, soaring through the sky, as though impatient for the summer to come.

This is all part of their enigma, not knowing what to expect from these scimitar shaped wings as they sweep past. It almost seems as though they were the sentinels sent to see if all is well on the possible nest sites.

This year, there is an additional artificial ne-stbox, making seven in all, so we are keeping our fingers, and all else crossed, in anticipation.

Their rapid flight in what looks like stiff unbent wings are impressive enough but their screaming calls move me even more as if they are simply in gay abandon, as well they might be with such power.

RC