Saving England's most threatened species from extinction
Archive:
29th August 2019
Spotty Chequered Skippers! Following the announcement of our news about the initial Chequered Skipper success (very exciting!), people have been curious as to why red spots can be seen on the wings of some of the butterflies. Hopefully this blog post will reveal all. This year we bought a second batch of Chequered Skipper’s over...
Read more25th July 2019
The Chequered Skipper Flies Again! Seeing Chequered Skippers flying once again in their former English strongholds has been a dream of mine since I was a child. I grew up in Northamptonshire in a house that backed on to fields and while exploring the seemingly endless natural world beyond the back gate I developed a...
Read more28th June 2019
A previously extinct butterfly has bred successfully in an English woodland for the first time in more than 40 years as part of the ambitious conservation project, Back from the Brink. Freshly emerged Chequered Skippers have been regularly spotted over the last few weeks at a secret location in Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire, and it is...
Read more8th August 2018
It’s been almost three months since the Chequered Skipper butterfly took to the wing in England for the first time in 40 years. We were lucky to get lots of media coverage of the release which was a great opportunity to tell people more about the work we are doing, as well as allowing people...
Read more18th June 2018
My name is Jamie Wildman and I am a PhD Environmental Science student at the University of Northampton which is working in partnership with Butterfly Conservation to research the ecology of the Chequered Skipper butterfly and its reintroduction to Rockingham Forest as part of the Back from the Brink Roots of Rockingham project. Belgium: Collecting...
Read more15th May 2018
Can I write a short blog on my childhood memories of the Chequered Skipper? No problem said I! Big problem thinking about it, it was 50 years ago and I was only ten! In 1969, a friend had talked me into going on a nature based holiday with the local Natural History club. We were...
Read more14th May 2018
The Chequered Skipper was first recorded in Britain near Bedford in May 1798 by Charles Abott. Although relatively common in mainland Europe, the Chequered Skipper was never widespread in Britain. For many years it was known only in England, found in a band of woodlands stretching from Oxfordshire to Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. Its presence was...
Read moreThe Chequered Skipper Butterfly became extinct in England in 1975, when the last of its kind was seen in the woods of the East Midlands. The species is still found in western Scotland, but this year sees the start of a project to reintroduce the butterfly to England as part of the Roots of Rockingham...
Read more3rd January 2018
In our last two Willow Tit blogs, we introduced the project itself and then looked at why it’s been chosen for Back from the Brink. In this blog piece, we’re focussing on how you can spot a Willow Tit and what you can do when that happens.
Read more17th November 2017
The much anticipated Back from the Brink project has finally started, and I am lucky enough to be a part of it! Rockingham Forest is going to be my stomping ground for the next four years, providing a large area of over 200 square miles for me to explore and discover.
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