Just for a change we walked the transect on a Friday. The weather was cloudy, breezy and around the minimum temperature for butterflies to be up and about. Bill Downey has recently reminded us that we should be prepared for the regular June gap in sightings before the main summer butterfly emergence but what we encountered was a chasm rather than a gap.

The total for the 12 sections was 18 across 5 species. We counted:
11 Common Blue
  3  Small Heath
  2  Dingy Skipper
  1  Holly Blue
  1 Speckled Wood
 Click on butterfly names for more info.
​
On a more encouraging note,  the Kidney Vetch (favoured by the Small Blue) is blooming on Hither Field as well as on our Stagbury patch, which recently benefited from some new planting.

And we can report that Horseshoe Vetch is in bloom across much of the Chalkhill Blue site, a tribute to the timely work put in by our volunteers.

With Andy's proposed Glow-worm survey approaching, it was good to find a larva on the path on Coneyboro Hill (see pic).

Nonetheless, the highlight of today's walk was finding a Butterfly Orchid. This was a first sighting of this plant and GH said that they are now uncommon – he hasn't seen one for around 15 years. ​

Despite the settled weather with hardly any breeze and hazy sunshine, butterfly numbers were noticeably lower than last week. Lots to see on our walk, though it was harder to spot some Fly and Tway Blade Orchids in flower, both in Fames Rough. And after all the grass-cutting on the Chalkhill Blue site this year, it was encouraging to see the Horseshoe Vetch in flower. It will be interesting to see how many Chalkhills appear in their season.

We recorded:
  1 Large Skipper
14 Dingy Skipper
  3 Grizzled Skipper
16 Brimstone 
  1 Orange Tip
11 Green Hairstreak
  2 Small Copper
  7 Common Blue
  2 Holly Blue
  6 Peacock
  1 Speckled Wood
13 Small Heath
Totalling 77 butterflies across 12 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

The strong easterly wind put a cold edge on what was otherwise a fine sunny morning and we were not surprised that there were no butterflies to count in Section 1, but we then went on to record our highest ever number of Dingy Skippers (54), considerably beating last year's highest count of 32. 

We recorded:
54 Dingy Skipper
25 Brimstone 
​13 Grizzled Skipper
12 Green Hairstreak
10 Small Heath
  5 Orange Tip
  4 Holly Blue
  4 Peacock
  2 Green-veined White
  1 Speckled Wood
  1 Small Copper

Totalling 131 butterflies across 11 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.
​
Report by Brian & Graham H,
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS). 
Pics from Brian.
Click on pics to enlarge.