A glorious day yesterday (20th April 2011) in Lancashire. I went to survey the site where I have collected nests for the past two years. There was a Small Tortoiseshell basking in almost every patch of nettles (and there are a lot of patches!). I saw many pairs of Small Tortoiseshells spiralling upwards from the nettles throughout the day also, and late in the day, I watched as a male drummed his antennae against the wings of a female trying to get her interest. There were two or three Peacocks flying around , one male determinedly defending his patch of ground against me as I tried to look at the nettles around him for nests. There were also a single Green veined white and Orange tips a plenty (the other species pair that I'm studying!). Most of my morning I was serenaded by a stonechat, not the most melodic of birds but kept me entertained!

I found four Small Tortoiseshell nests yesterday, 5 weeks earlier than the first nests found last year! So hopefully this year will prove as good a year as last year. I collect 30 caterpillars from each nest (a nest can have 50-200 caterpillars). In 2009, I collected 452 caterpillars; in 2010, I collected 2127 caterpillars from this one site! All healthy adults are returned to the site to maintain the wild population.

Booths have submitted a planning application to build a store on the site (http://www.lancastergreenparty.org.uk/campaigns/lawsons-bridge/), which would be devasting for the Small Tortoiseshell in this region. I have surveyed many sites in Lancashire and Cumbria and this site has by far the highest populations of nettle-feeding nymphalid butterflies. I am putting forward my objections to the development. Let's hope it doesn't go ahead.