New Forest 71, 196, 235–6, 264, 270–7
Newman, L Hugh 252–3
Nightingale 35–6, 55, 85–6, 121–2
Noar Hill 81–2, 96–7, 114, 117–19, 127–8, 135–9, 140–6, 148, 155–60, 169, 171–2, 194, 199, 224–5, 237, 239, 268, 287–8, 301, 371
nomenclature 58–66
Norfolk Broads 292–3, 306–7, 331, 337, 352
North York Moors 173–5, 412
Northern Ireland 254–5, 305, 364–5, 372–5
Northlands Wood 36, 56
Northumberland 430–1
nose blowing 28–9, 31
O, Mrs 150, 157, 173, 176, 217, 385, 410
Oakhanger woods 86, 89, 244
Oates, Arion 257
Oates, Camilla (Millie) 217, 256, 283–5, 293, 302–3, 304, 339
Oates, Euphrosyne (Rosie) 287
Oates, Lucina (Lucy) 177, 207
Okehurst Woods 42, 44
Old Winchester Hill NNR 172, 182, 202
Pamber Forest 205, 209, 217
Parkhurst Forest 206, 207
photography 88, 138, 225, 300, 413, 441–2, 444, 454, 464
Pilsdon Pen 236
Pollard, Ernie 101
Pope, Alexander 346, 349
Porter, Keith 157
Portland 311, 329, 363, 384
Porton Down 172–3, 247, 266, 402–3
Psyche 16, 73, 455, 464–5
Pyle, Robert M 172
Quantock Hills 213–14, 383, 435
Rabbit 82, 136, 141, 143, 173, 177, 229–32, 247, 250, 301, 341, 364
Ratnieks, Francis 41, 44, 53
re-wilding 392–3, 395, 444–5, 461
Ribwort Plantain 364
Roborough Common 212
Rodborough Common 208, 279–80, 300, 341–4, 383
Rook 125, 204, 223, 233, 318
Rowallane 374–5
Rushbeds Wood 90
Rusland Moss 181
Russell, David 363
Russworm, A D A 102
Sahara dust 279, 351
St David’s 299
St James’s Park 265
St Leonards Forest 38, 42, 45, 47
St Swithun 392, 407, 409
Salisbury Plain 312
sallows 49, 55, 68–9, 81, 98, 105–10, 237, 325, 338, 393–7, 434, 445
Sand Point 236, 305, 363–4
Sandars, Edmund 34
Savernake Forest 395, 397, 399–400, 403, 405, 409, 416–21, 433–4, 437–8
Scilly 373, 453
Scott, Sir Peter 287
seasonal affective disorder 34, 233–4
Seavington St Mary 31
Selborne 74, 86, 153, 194, 222
Selborne Common 82, 141, 144–5, 222, 300, 394
Selsley Common 299, 313
Shelley, Percy Bysshe 403, 406
Shipton Bellinger 188, 394
Shortheath Pond 129–30
Shoulder of Mutton Hill 115, 170, 197, 204, 222, 463
Shreeves, Bill 295, 385
shrimp paste 358, 387, 391–2, 441
Silverdale 152, 160–1, 256, 370
Simcox, Dave 211, 259, 306
Site X 211, 248–9, 278
Slimbridge 287
Smardale 267–8
Somerford Common 361
South, Richard 34
Southwater Forest 33, 47–50, 68–70, 75–7, 85–6, 89, 93–4, 316
Sparrowhawk 72
spirit of place 24, 33, 146, 456, 458
Spring, Nigel 228–9, 286
Steel, Caroline 170
Straits Inclosure see Alice Holt Forest
Strawberry Banks 254, 258, 290, 301, 304, 311, 318, 344–5, 401, 403, 410, 424, 426, 432
Sukebind 387–8, 391, 427, 441, 444
Swinyard Hill 178–9, 201, 265
Teign valley 210, 212, 244
television 351, 355, 385, 387, 453–4
Tennyson, Lord Alfred 123, 269
Test Match Special see cricket
thistles 286, 383, 386
Thomas, Chris 230, 283
Thomas, Dylan 233, 326, 447
Thomas, Edward 74, 82, 115, 125–6, 146, 188, 219, 334–5, 381, 417, 435
Thomas, Jeremy 114, 157, 189, 249, 259, 336
Thoreau, Henry David 16, 47, 76, 79, 80, 451
thunderstorms 79, 148, 178
Times, The 88, 442
Torlesse, A D 102
Toynton, Paul 127
Tunnicliffe, C F 23
Valezina, Viscountess Bolinbroke, née Frohawk 31
variations see aberrations
Vera, Frans 392
Voltaire 465
Wallington 430–1
Walter’s Copse 435–6
Warren, Martin 227, 230, 283, 444
Watership Down 193
Watkins-Pitchford, Denys (‘BB’) 29–31, 38, 325, 396, 406
Watlington Hill 40, 43, 216, 229, 266, 326
Watson, Robert W 101–2
West Woods 329, 413
Wharfedale 432
Whitbarrow 151–2, 164, 227, 370
White, Gilbert 74, 141, 222
Whitecross Green Wood 331, 332
Whiteford Burrows 326
Whixall Moss 367, 374
Wicken Fen 324–5
Wight, Isle of 46, 148–50, 162–3, 192–3, 206, 215–16, 245, 330, 362–3, 385–6
Wildlife & Countryside Act 134–5
Willmott, Ken 113, 117, 149–50, 209, 308, 327, 385, 394, 406, 427, 444
Willow Warbler 20, 75, 159, 293
Winnie-the-Pooh 422
Winter of Discontent 119–21
Woolbeding Common 209
Woolmer, John 383, 434, 442
Wordsworth, William 17, 214, 264, 284, 353, 383
Worms, Baron C G M de 60, 74–5, 93, 104
Worth Matravers 131
Wrynose 248, 262, 294
Wyre Forest 178, 180–1, 314, 319,
Yateley Common 214, 216
Yewbarrow 152, 247, 260, 284
Starting out, Easter 1964. At Timberscombe, north-west Somerset, with Great Uncle Percy, the children’s author J. P. Martin.
Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary on Foxglove, Exmoor.
BB (Denys Watkins-Pitchford) out Emperoring (© the BB Society).
The Adonis Blue, back home in the Cotswolds after a 40-year absence.
A Green Hairstreak on Rodborough Common.
Silver-washed Fritillary, a woodland butterfly now on the increase.
Marlpost Wood, West Sussex, July 2012. Duke of Burgundy and Pearlbordered Fritillaries flew along this ride in the late 1960s, breeding in the young oak plantation on the left, which is now a breeding locality for Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral.
A female Purple Hairstreak, a tree-top species that pupates on the ground.
Edward Thomas country; the little-known paradise that is the East Hampshire Hangers. Looking north towards Noar Hill and Selborne from Wheatham Hill, near Petersfield.
Straits Inclosure, Alice Holt Forest, Hampshire, July 1980. Each mid-summer morning numerous Silver-washed Fritillaries and White Admirals would breakfast on the profuse bramble blossom.
A freshly emerged White Admiral on bramble flowers.
Noar Hill, Selborne, May 1986, when Cowslips and Duke of Burgundies abounded, the air pulsated with the songs of Willow Warblers, and all was right with the world.
Dissecting the experimental cage built to determine where Duke of Burgundy larvae pupate, ‘HM Prison Wyck’, Hampshire, August 1984.
A rare second-brood Duke of Burgundy from Rodborough Common.
Looking back at Noar Hill - Thomas Mouse, who conducted frequent small mammal surveys there, and daughter Lucina (Lucy), who didn’t.
A sylph-like and remarkably hirsute author marking Duke of Burgundies for ecological research work on Noar Hill, May 1984.
Camilla (Millie) Oates in July 1996 at Meathop Moss, south Cumbria, the haunt of the Large Heath. In the distance lies the limestone massif of Whitbarrow Scar.
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A Large Heath at Meathop Moss in July.
A Brown Argus, a common butterfly on the Cotswold grasslands.
A Long-tailed Blue from the famous 2013 influx of this exceedingly scarce migrant. This female was photographed at Kingsdown Leas in Kent, in September.
Arnside Knott, south Cumbria, July 2013. A place of pilgrimage, and probably the UK’s bestloved butterfly site.
Dark Green Fritillary is locally common on the Morecambe Bay hills.
The kingdom of the Mountain Ringlet. Near Stickle Tarn and Pavey Ark in the Langdale Pikes, Lake District, June 1995.
The lady of the high fells, the Mountain Ringlet. A female basking on discarded sheep wool, Grey Knotts, Cumbria, July.
Thunacar Knott, Langdale Pikes, June1995. Analysing vegetation structure where a Mountain Ringlet egg has been laid.
The Malvern Hills, looking north from the British Camp (© National Trust Images/Joe Cornish).
Male High Brown Fritillary from Heddon Valley, north Devon.
Four High Brown Fritillaries drinking by a puddle. Eleven were clustered there one hot day in July 1986 - then a jogger ran through as I was lining up the photograph. Just four returned. Forgiveness, like many other things, can take time.
Glanville Fritillary at Compton Bay.
The ever-changing shoreline of Compton Bay on the Isle of Wight - the ‘island home’ of the Glanville Fritillary. June 1996.
Male Heath Fritillary displaying in Halse Combe, near Porlock on east Exmoor
Largescale experimental plots in Halse Combe, set up to determine how to manage Bracken habitats for this rare butterfly. June, 2004. Inset: Heath Fritillary underwing, at Halse Combe.
A male Large Blue at Collard Hill in June.
Large Blue laying eggs on Wild Thyme in June.
Early days at Collard Hill, the National Trust’s open-access site for the Large Blue in the Polden Hills, Somerset, in June 2002. From left to right, Nigel Bourn, David Simcox, Martin Warren and Jeremy Thomas
A female Large Blue at Collard Hill, showing the upperwing.
His Grace the Duke of Burgundy, on Rodborough Common.
Burgundy country; the steep slopes of Rodborough Common, in the heart of the Cotswolds, June 2013.
Purple Haze! Strawberry Banks, alive with Devil’s-bit Scabious flowers and an assortment of random small children. September 1996.
Pearl-bordered Fritillary at Cwm Soden on the Ceredigion coast.
Freshly emerged Pearl-bordered Fritillary in Cirencester Park Woods.
Two Pearlbordered Fritillary larvae feeding on a violet clump amongst a tangle of dead bramble leaves, a classic breeding location. Cirencester Park Woods, Gloucestershire, April 1998.
A pristine male Purple Emperor, feeding on Fox scat. Fermyn Woods, Northamptonshire, June 2014.
A posse of four Purple Emperors feeding on Fox scat. Fermyn Woods, July 2013.
Purple Emperor larva named ‘Keats’ at dinner, Savernake Forest, early June 2010.
Male Purple Emperor of the rare colour form ab. lugenda, Fermyn Woods, July. And that dark prince, the oakwood haunting thing/Dyed with blue burnish like the mallard’s wing (John Masefield, ‘King Cole’).
Autumn in Savernake Forest, 2010. Our life is no dream, but it may and perhaps will become one (Novalis).
Painted Lady time: a cluster of Painted Ladies feeding on Saw-wort, Lydlinch Common, August 1996.
Orange-tip from Culkerton, May.
Rare ab. suffusa form of the Comma, Fermyn Woods, July.
The author in a shepherd’s hut at Knepp Wildlands, West Sussex, July 2014 (© Neil Hulme).
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2015
Copyright © text by Matthew Oates, 2015
Copyright © cover artwork and chapter header images by Darren Woodhead, 2015
Copyright © other inside illustrations by Tim Bernhard, 2015
All photos © Matthew Oates (National Trust Images) unless otherwise specified.
Matthew Oates has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
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‘The New Forest’ chapter is an adapted and updated version of an article originally published as ‘The demise of butterflies in the New Forest’, in British Wildlife 1996, 7 (4), 205–216.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data has been applied for.
ISBN (hardback) 978-1-4729-2450-6
ISBN (paperback) 978-1-4729-2452-0
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4729-2451-3
In Pursuit of Butterflies Page 48