Hunting the Heath

I have a top job some days. I've been on a photo shoot for an annual report on the projects we support with funding from landfill tax. On of the schemes is the reintroduction of the Large Heath Butterfly onto a restored Lancashire Mossland at Heysham. It is not as simple as catch them one site and move them to another. First job has been to get the habitat right at Heysham which has involved rewetting large parts of the reserve which to place over the winter. Special breeding cages have had to be set up at Chester Zoo so that the captured gravid females can lay their eggs on the cotton grass in cages. The females were caught yesterday had to whisked off to the zoo within two hours. The weather has had to just be right also. Plus you need to get a licence from Natural England to take the butterflies off site. This is all because the Large Heath is protected by law. Why can't the butterfly fly to the new site you ask? Well the species ain't a great flyer and is very parochial and doesn't like it away from it's mossland habitat. Next summer we hope to be releasing the bread butterflies on the site at Heysham to start a new population.

I ain't been blipping recently because of father in laws stroke but he is on the mend slowly and is talking about coming home from hospital. It's going to be long job hopefully with a good outcome.