Bentley Wood doing well.

Just to give an overview of the season so far;


Good numbers of males & females have emerged this year with my own early morning counts of up to 11 males from a small area of the site.


In the same limited area I also made daily counts of up to 6 egg - laying females.


It is also important to remember that the wood is part of a large complex of woods here that are important to the species.


Since egg - laying was observed from early July [ as in 2010 ] & will no doubt continue for up to ten days now, this bodes well for 2012 provided of course that overwinter survival & emergence etc. is reasonable.


I suspect that last year's gale in mid - July had little effect despite the ferocity of the weather here as the same pattern of early egg - laying was observed & females were plentiful & busy egg - laying following the gale.


My final observation of egg - laying in 2010 was 27th July.


Given the huge area of woodland used by the males & females I hope to get a better idea of the size of the population by surveying more widely in future.


I will also hopefully find time to complete a couple more days survey on site this year when the inevitable weather window arrives.



Mike.