Yesterday I met up with a group of BC Sussex committee members to look at a private site where habitat management for Dukes has been ongoing since 2006. It was a good opportunity to show where a lot of Branch money has been directed, what has been acheived here, and where extended work is planned for the future. The butterflies did a great job of helping themselves, by emerging in good numbers that morning. We saw 28 male Dukes, including 4 in an area where they have just set up a 'satellite' colony. Still very early in the season on this site, so hopefully numbers will build significantly over the next few days. A couple of us then went on to another colony, discovered only last May. This site was so completely overgrown that I feared we might not be in time to save them (couldn't find a single food plant last year) and that our intervention had come too late in the day. So it was very good news to see 2 females laying eggs here. By next season the initial habitat work performed last winter will really start to 'kick in', so things are looking good
It was one of those days that make all the hard work worthwhile.Neil
