A welcome break in the weather

This cool, unpredictable spring continues with only rare breaks of warm weather. Saturday was forecast to offer one of those breaks, once the morning's cloud dispersed. It was only as I parked the car that the sun finally made its appearance and the cloud thinned rapidly to reveal a very pleasant afternoon for a butterfly count. 
 
We recorded butterflies across nine of the twelve sections but Fames Rough (section 3 and 4) with its warm, south-facing slope was where we counted the most individuals and species. The summer flowers are not yet showing in any great numbers and it will be interesting to see what comes through in the next few weeks. The ongoing scrub clearance work in Fames has disturbed the ground and it may take a while for some meadow flowers to re-establish themselves in the cleared areas, especially after their scorching in last summer's drought. 
 
Coneyboro Hill Field (section 2) once again has a small flock of goats who are intended to eat the dogwood scrub that has advanced over recent years. They gnawed the plants down to a height of six to eight inches last summer, perhaps they'll finish the job by taking them down to ground level this time around.

Here's what we recorded:
21 Brimstone
  8 Orange Tip
  3 Peacock
  3 Speckled Wood
  1 Comma
  1 Holly Blue 
  1 Red Admiral
  1 Small White
 Summary:
39 Butterflies from 8 species.

Speckled Wood, Fames Rough

Survey by Graham H ​and Brian Gardner
​submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).  ​
​Report and pics by Brian Gardner. ​

Adder's Tongue, Fames Rough

Yellow Archangel, Coneyboro Hill