Previous AGM Minutes - Butterfly Conservation
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HERTFORDSHIRE &
MIDDLESEX BRANCH
Branch Review of 2020
Previous AGM Minutes
Due to Covid-19, the AGM scheduled for March 2020 did not take place. Accordingly, the most
recent minutes relate to those of the 2019 AGM, which available on the Branch website:
http://www.hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.uk/events/AGM_minutes23.03.19.pdf
Chair’s Report – Malcolm Hull
The last year has thrown up challenges in many aspects of our lives. The impact of Covid-19 and the
ways we have responded feature throughout this report. All Branch events have been impacted to
some extent, with many butterfly walks and moth events restricted or cancelled due to the
requirements for lockdown and social distancing. But we’ve risen to the challenge, videoing or
livestreaming events and putting together our biggest ever programme of winter talks, culminating
with Members Day on 27th March. Increased use of Zoom and email communications has saved the
branch considerable printing and postage costs, resulting in a healthy bank balance. However, the
impact on Butterfly Conservation head office finances has been considerable, resulting in significant
losses of staff and funding. For this reason, we agreed to donate £5,000, a significant proportion of
the branch surplus, to head office.
The Covid-19 epidemic has increased the focus on wildlife and helped draw attention the severe
decline of many species and the risks of extinction. Our President David Attenborough has played a
key role in highlighting the huge problems faced by all animal groups, particularly insects. The
considerable conservation efforts made in our area in recent years have helped halt and reverse the
decline of many butterfly species. But this is not typical of the world as a whole, where huge
declines in all forms of wildlife are continuing and, in some areas, escalating. We can’t solve the
world’s problems, but we can help by taking practical conservation and knowledge sharing activities
to show how healthy ecosystems can be restored with butterflies and moths at their heart. Planting
wildflowers in our own gardens, attending conservation tasks, and advising on landscape scale
management, all make a valuable contribution to biodiversity.
It’s been a challenging year for our Branch projects, with progress slowed or delayed. Big City
Butterflies is our flagship project, aiming to provide two full time
workers focused on conservation and knowledge sharing in inner
London. This is organized jointly with head office, the three other
BC branches with London representation and major funding from
the Heritage Lottery Fund. After some delay, the project is now
confirmed, and staff recruitment began in February. I will update
at Members Day, in the meantime contact either Paul Busby or
me if you’d like to be involved. Our Small Blue Project, focused
on Greenwood Park, St Albans is continuing, with interpretation
boards and a rabbit proof fence erected during the year. Regular Small Blue
site monitoring is underway and we eagerly await the first Small Photo © Ian Small
Blue sighting. All the other Small Blue sites in our area are doing well, with more Kidney Vetch
seeding recently completed by the Boxmoor Trust at Lower Roughdown, near Hemel Hempstead.
Brown Hairstreak has continued to spread in Middlesex. We have continued to monitor its
expansion and engaged with site owners and managers to explain the specific habitat requirements
of this butterfly species. We are keen to expand our role in conserving other rare species,
particularly White Admiral, Grizzled Skipper and Dingy Skipper. If you would like to help with this,
or just find out more about branch activities, please do get in touch. There’s always a list of tasks we
need help with that you can access via the “Can you help?” page on our website – the current list is
reproduced at the end of this document.
Greenwood Park Chalk Bank for Small Blue
Photos © Malcolm Hull
Your committee has continued to meet, adapting well to the new medium of Zoom. Alex Lewis has
joined us as press officer and already had success in achieving coverage in several local papers.
Thank-you to all the committee and other members who have contributed so much over the year. A
special mention to Brian Legg, whose Butterflies of Heartwood Forest booklet has sold extremely
well, resulting in donations of over £700 for the Branch (see Branch website for details of how to
order a copy).
Sadly. we lost several branch members and supporters during the year.
- John Hollingdale, a founding member of the Branch, our longstanding Branch Treasurer, who
was passionate about butterflies and moths, serving on our committee for over 20 years
- Brian Sawford, another founding committee member, author of The Butterflies of
Hertfordshire, which inspired so many of us to develop an interest in butterflies.
- Trevor James, eminent local naturalist, author of Flora of Hertfordshire and a keen butterfly
observer
- Paul Thrush, former Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust Reserves Officer, responsible for much
valuable habitat management work
- Professor David Newland, author of ‘Discover Butterflies in Britain’ - a guide to the best
places to see all Britain's different butterfly species flying in the wild. He was a keen
supporter of Butterfly Conservation and our Branch.
They will all be missed and there will be a tribute to Brian in our next newsletter, due out in April.
Secretary’s Report – Liz Goodyear
As reported elsewhere, we were due to the Covid-19 restrictions unable to hold our Members’ Day
incorporating the AGM in 2020. All committee meetings were held online using Zoom and the
majority of the committee were able to participate. Since April 2020, we have met five times and
also used Zoom to have small working group meetings to discuss specific issues. Although it is a
shame that we can’t meet in person, Zoom does have the advantage of saving on fuel costs!
Membership Report – Ian Small
Membership figures are compiled annually by Head Office at the beginning of November, allowing
us to track the growth of our own Branch, but also to compare it with the fortunes of other BC
Branches. As usual, the figures show a mixed picture. On the one hand, we attracted membership
from 156 new households, numerically down over 10% from the previous couple of years.
However, a slightly reduced attrition rate this year led to a net increase of 51 households (4.5%),
almost identical to the previous year, giving a new total of 1195 households. The proportion of new
household members is very close to the average seen across all BC Branches. The consistent growth
trend since Head Office began collating these figures is shown below. As households can have
single, joint or family membership, the number of actual members is higher than the number of
households and stood at 1622 as of 1st November 2020.
Household Addresses 2011-2020
1195
1200 1144
1094
1100 1060
1000 972
908
900 866
815
800
720
679
700
600
Oct-11 Oct-12 Nov-13 Nov-14 Nov-15 Nov-16 Nov-17 Nov-18 Nov-19 Nov-20
The largest BC Branch continues to be West Midlands, with 1846 households, closely followed by
Hampshire & IOW (1804) and Yorkshire (1779). We remain 11th largest of the 31 BC Branches.
Not surprisingly, our planned event dedicated to new members did not take place due to Covid-19
restrictions. It is unclear at this time whether it will be practical to hold such an event during 2021.
We are, however, exploring the possibilities for providing online material of particular relevance to
those who have only recently developed an interest in butterflies and are keen to know more.
The Branch newsletter continues to be produced twice a year, but our planned expansion of online
distribution was pre-empted by the practical impacts of Covid-19 restrictions. As a result, Branch
newsletters are by default provided electronically as pdf files, via the Branch website, with members receiving a link that is sent out via the Head Office bulk mailing system. Hard copies are still available on request for those who have not provided any e-mail address, or those for whom reading via an electronic device is impractical. There is no plan to change this approach once Covid-19 restrictions have eased – the substantial savings on the costs of stationary, postage and other consumables allows a far greater proportion of the Branch finances to be targeted towards conservation activities. At the end of 2020, Head Office migrated the Society membership database to a new system. Unfortunately, this has led to a number of unforeseen glitches, the resolutions to which are still ongoing. This has led, amongst other things, to delays in Branches being notified about new members, some members being incorrectly flagged as having lapsed and issues relating to people who belong to multiple Branches. As a result, a number of members will not yet have received Andrew Wood’s annual report of the Butterflies of Hertfordshire & Middlesex, 2020. Head Office have promised to provide updated membership lists by the end of March 2021, at which time copies will be distributed to any members who had been omitted from the earlier distribution list due to these issues. Butterfly Walks & Moth Events – Liz Goodyear The 2020 walks programme was still in preparation when Covid19 social gathering restrictions were imposed so did not get published. With the relaxation of restrictions in June which enabled small numbers of people to meet outside, a few walks were held. These were restricted to just six people including the leader and had to be pre-booked. There will be a programme of butterfly walks in 2021, but these will not resume until the middle of May. Because of the continuing Covid-19 restrictions we will probably have to implement an online booking system, but that is still ‘in planning’. Look out for information in the April newsletter as well as on the website for details. Branch Website, Facebook and Twitter – Peter Clarke & Liz Goodyear 2020 once again saw a significant annual increase in the number of users viewing our website with 8,825 up 14.48% on 2019’s total. More interesting is the rise in number of mobile phone users – 3,331 up 31.04%. The sightings webpage was easily the most visited: 20,759 an increase of 21.85%. The moths’ webpages proved to be much more popular this year with the day-flying moths’ page attracting 1,453 viewers, a rise of 119.82%. Significant changes to the website include the implementation of the photo competition online due to Covid-19 restrictions and the addition of a ‘videos’ webpage to hold relevant videos or films. Both the Branch Twitter and Facebook pages continue to play an important role in promoting Butterfly Conservation at a local level. Our Twitter feed has over 1260 followers and the Facebook page now has over 1000 followers! Throughout 2020, they have both helped brighten up peoples’ days with many pictures and videos of butterflies and moths. We also use Twitter to promote important and informative tweets from Head Office. When posting on Twitter a branch related tweet do remember to include @Bc_HertsMiddx in the text or tag the branch into an image. A linked photo of 80 Jersey Tigers tweeted by Liz Goodyear in July ‘went viral’ and received 533 likes, 73 retweets and 32 replies! We will continue to post all events on the national website https://butterfly-conservation.org/in- your-area/hertfordshire-and-middlesex-branch. Please remember to visit our Facebook and Twitter links:
http://www.facebook.com/ButterflyConservationHertsMiddlesex
https://twitter.com/Bc_HertsMiddx
Engagement in 2020 – Andrew Wood
One of our aims is to work with other organisations to raise awareness of butterflies, moths, and
their conservation. This can be by giving practical advice on conservation, training for recorders or by
delivering talks and presentations. The circumstances in 2020 made this somewhat harder to do.
However, we were still able to undertake these activities in 2020:
Conservation Advice
• Herts and Middx Wildlife Trust – Balls Wood and Waterford Heath
• Letchworth Garden City Heritage Trust
• Natural England at Therfield Heath
• Private landowners
• St Stephens Parish Council to concerning Greenwood Park Butterfly Bank, erect
interpretation boards, install rabbit fence, complete HLF paperwork and organise
volunteer work parties to manage vegetation.
• Legal & General, the site owners at Ickenham concerning Brown Hairstreak habitat
management requirements.
• Woodland Trust habitat management plan for Heartwood Forest, Sandridge
• Watford BC concerning Cassiobury Park and Whippendell Woods
• Boxmoor Trust sites at Roughdown Common and Sheethanger Common
• Dacorum Council concerning Paradise Fields, Hemel Hempstead
• Various site owners and managers concerning Bricket Wood Common
• Countryside Management Service concerning Clarence Park, St Albans & the Nicky
Line, Harpenden
• Enfield Borough Council – input to their Green and Blue strategy.
Media
• Interview with Radio Verulam to promote Big Butterfly Count
• Article in Butterfly magazine concerning hibernating butterflies
• Alex Lewis secured coverage of our Heartwood Forest butterfly walk and the
Heartwood Butterfly book in both the Herts Advertiser and Hertfordshire Life
• Alex Lewis secured coverage of our Annual Report in Welwyn-Hatfield Times,
Hertfordshire Advertiser, Hertfordshire Mercury, Stevenage Comet and Royston
Crow
Talks given
• Friends of Alexandra Park
• Microsoft Teams talk for Friends of Holland Park
• Zoom talk to Harrow Natural History Society
Training
• Transect walking at Gunnersbury Park, Natural History Wildlife Garden, Wood Lane,
Pirton
Millhoppers’ Report – Chris Ridley
Covid-19 and poor weather conditions have severely restricted group activities at Millhoppers since
the last annual review, and we have only been able to hold a couple of work parties, during which
we managed to remove most of the Blackthorn saplings that were encroaching onto the meadow
areas and also cut the seed heads off many of the Hogweed plants to discourage their spread.
Very fortunately, we were helped by the Aldbury Sheep Cooperative in autumn 2020. The group own
a flock of 9 sheep of various varieties as a hobby, and they kindly agreed to bring their sheep to the
Millhoppers’ site for five weeks from September until early October - a perfect time for the animals
to have the most impact on the sward. We look forward to enjoying their effect next spring and
summer, and also to repeat visits of this friendly flock.
Although we have not yet found a volunteer who is keen to regularly walk a butterfly transect at
Millhoppers, Chris Hilling and myself did our best to monitor the butterflies on the site, once the
Covid-19 restrictions were eased early last summer. In the country generally the spring butterflies
did particularly well, possibly due to the warm spring, but we were unable to begin monitoring until
20th May, so missed some of this abundance. Over the summer the Ringlet, Meadow Brown and
Small white did particularly well at Millhoppers, whereas the Common Blue, Small Copper and
Common Blue numbers were down compared to previous years.
Three moth-monitoring sessions took place, in July, August and September, with sixty-seven species
found in July, twenty-two in August and eleven in September. New species which hadn’t previously
been recorded at the site included: Pebble Hook-tip, Nut-tree Tussock, Dusky Sallow, Buff-tip, Ear
Moth, Pebble Prominent, Cloaked Minor, Red-barred tortrix, Brown Plume, European Corn-borer,
Teleiopsis diffinis and Eudonia delunella in July; Pyrausta aurata, Light Emerald and Frosted Orange
in August; and Light Brown Apple Moth, Streak, November Moth, Green Brindled Crescent and
Yellow-line Quaker in September. We always marvel at the beauty and variety of shapes and colours
of the moths caught during these sessions and hope that we will be able to make some moth events
open to the public in the future.
Frosted Orange Nut-tree Tussock
Photos © Chris Hilling
We are still striving for a solution to the water supply to Millhoppers, as the stream continues to dry
up during the summer months, and with this in mind we have decided to build a permanent lined
pond on the site. This will enable the many dragonflies and damselflies seen in the area to breed
here and will also allow the amphibians such as frogs, toads and newts to complete their life cycle
without the disruption a spring drought would otherwise bring. A chalk bank may also be
constructed near the pond, which will encourage more chalk loving plants to flourish at Millhoppers,
and this should increase the variety of butterfly species attracted to the site.If anyone would be keen to help us out with some butterfly monitoring at Millhoppers over next spring and summer months, or with any other volunteering tasks during our monthly work parties, please let us know. Recording Effort in 2020 - Andrew Wood We have received 61713 records this year from over 3400 different recorders who made 25000 visits to 602 2km map squares recording just over 209,000 individual butterflies. The records are summarised in the “Hertfordshire and Middlesex Butterflies” booklet that you will have received. Some of the figures here may be slightly different because more records have arrived since the booklet was written. Records come from the following main sources: 1) Transects There were 62 transect routes that were covered in 2020. These are routes that are walked regularly each week from April to September by a dedicated band of recorders. Some of these routes have been walked for many years and give us valuable comparative material for a particular site. This is useful to compare numbers of butterflies on a consistent basis, as we do in the abundance figures in the booklet. New transects have continued to be created with only a few losses this year. We continue to provide support, information, and training on transect walking and 2020 saw several site visits and training sessions to support this work. 2) The Wider Countryside Butterfly Scheme, where a number of randomly allocated 1km squares are crossed by two routes walked twice a year, to provide data on trends in areas that may or may not be key areas. For instance, some are very urban, and this helps to balance the trends from data collected in the hot spots of our area. 3) The Big Butterfly Count - the increasingly popular “citizen science” scheme in late July and early August and continued to produce a record number of reports. These schemes are nationally co- ordinated by Butterfly Conservation and feed into schemes such as the National Biodiversity Network and the Butterflies for the New Millennium. 4) We receive many records from casual visits to sites, people’s gardens and from recorders who target particular areas in order to get comprehensive coverage of a group of 2km squares. These records come in from the smartphone iRecord and iRecord Butterflies apps, reports to our website, paper lists, spreadsheets, and emails. To all of these recorders we say a huge thank you. It is this kind of data that makes the UK one of the best recorded places in the world and enables us to further understand what is going on in the natural world and to try to do something to conserve and improve it. If you are not already recording please consider sending in records and helping this effort. The information in “Hertfordshire and Middlesex Butterflies” will help you to see what the current situation is and to see where we still need more recording effort. Moth Report for 2020, by John Murray Moth recording has continued despite the pandemic, though most records have come from people’s gardens this year. 2020 has been a low to average year for moths. In total moth numbers it was the 16th highest since 1995, with a combined total of 20,929 individual moths being recorded in nightly light traps at Bengeo by Andrew Wood and by myself at Marshalls Heath. In terms of species recorded, at the above sites the two species totals gives a combined total of 731, also the 16th highest since 1995.
New species continue to arrive, both in Hertfordshire and Middlesex, and among those recorded for
the first time in 2020 were the Breckland Plume, Sallow Clearwing (in Liz Goodyear’s garden
pheromone lure), and Crescent Dart, plus several micro species. Recently arrived species are
increasing in numbers in many cases. The Oak Processionary moth is clearly becoming established at
several sites, as is Black-spotted Chestnut, and also the Beautiful Marbled, which turned up in the
garden at Marshalls Heath. Radford’s Flame-shoulder and Oak Rustic were two other rarities.
There were also plenty of immigrants sighted across the two counties, including Clifden Nonpareil,
Slender Burnished Brass, Convolvulus Hawk-moth and Spurge Hawk-moth.
Regarding the long-term picture, total moth numbers are showing overall declines. However, this
does not apply to every species. Contrary to expectations, for those species with numbers high
enough to be significant, just as many moths have increased in numbers since the 1990s (86 species)
as have declined (83).
Beautiful Marbled moth at Marshalls Heath, 23rd August 2020
Photo © John MurrayTreasurer’s Report – Clifford Mullett
Financial Report for year ended 31 March 2020
Activities and expenditure were cut back by lockdown towards the end of the financial year resulting
in an unexpected increase in the balance of funds carried forward from £6,587 to £9,874.
Opening balances at 1 April 2019 £6,587
Income from Subscriptions £6,285
Donations and other income £1,965
Total Income: £14,837
Expenditure
Newsletters £2,427
Grant to Big City Butterflies £1,300
Committee Expenses £80
Postage, Stationary & Computer Consumables £960
Other Expenditure £196
Total Expenditure: £4,963
Balance Carried Forward £9,874
The low level of activity and therefore the increase in funds has continued throughout the current
financial year and we have therefore since donated £5,000 to Butterfly Conservation Head Office.
A further grant of £1,200 was contributed to the Greenwood Park Small Blue Project later in 2020.
We are also committed to £2,000 a year for each of the next four years of the Big City Butterflies
project and to £2,000 for the new pond and chalk bank at Millhoppers.Can you spare a few hours to help?
Our branch continues to step up efforts to conserve butterflies and moths. As well as two major projects (Big City Butterflies and Small Blue), we are
just completing our five year survey of butterflies as part of the Butterflies for the New Millennium project in the two counties and much more. If you
could spare even a few hours to help with any of the tasks below, please do get in touch. Previous experience is not essential; we will provide any
training needed. Contact details are all on the Committee page of the Branch website and on the back of each newsletter.
Role/task Contact Description
This year we are launching a new initiative to help conserve the five highest priority rare
butterfly species in our area. They are Small Blue, Brown Hairstreak, White
Help protect our rarest
Malcolm Hull Admiral, Grizzled Skipper and Dingy Skipper. The initial areas we need help with are
butterfly species
recording butterflies and evaluating the quality of habitat at existing sites. Plenty of help and
advice on how to do this are available
We are commencing on a major four year project promoting learning, recording and
Paul Busby conservation of butterflies in London. The core focus will be on inner London boroughs including
Big City Butterflies
Malcolm Hull Brent. The project will have two full-time staff with many roles for volunteers. If you live in this
area or want to help butterflies and moths living there please get in touch
Join our monthly work parties at our own butterfly nature reserve at Millhoppers Pasture, near
Tring. More help is always appreciated with managing hedges, cutting grass, clearing streams
Practical Conservation Paula Reid
and much more. However, on-site events are suspended during lockdown, but get in touch and
we will let you know as soon as activities can resume
Our publicity stall is a great way to share information and gain support by attending events,
usually in the Spring and Summer. We currently get to 3 or 4 events each year but with extra
volunteers on the stall and organising behind the scenes we could do more. Can you help with an
Events Malcolm Hull
event in your area? Future events we'd like to attend once it is safe to do so are the
Rickmansworth Festival in May and the Herts and Middlesex Festival of Wildlife at Panshanger
Park near Hertford in July. And maybe somewhere near you?Help the branch locate blackthorn in key Brown Hairstreak areas and possibly find new sites for
Blackthorn survey Liz Goodyear
the elusive butterfly - click here for details
Four spotted moth
John Murray We need volunteers to help record and conserve our rarest moth species in 2021
project
For 2021 volunteers are needed to help or take over existing transects in the London Boroughs
Recording Andrew Wood of Harrow and Hillingdon, Thorley Wash in east Hertfordshire and the two transects at Northaw
Great Wood in south Hertfordshire - training can be provided
Butterfly Conservation's most high-profile event of the year usually held in July, with over
Big Butterfly Count Malcolm Hull 111,000 people participating in 2020. We need help publicising it, distributing leaflets, telling
your family/friends and of course, taking part
Contribute your ideas on how we run the branch. Many decisions are made by email, with up to
Joining the Committee Malcolm Hull four meetings a year on a weekday evening. These meetings are currently held online via Zoom.
Any Branch member is welcome to join us for one of these two-hour sessions to find out more.
If you have any additional skills not mentioned on this list and would like to help - please contact Malcolm Hull
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