Blog Archives

Sun and showers

29/7/2021

The weather this week 17 was changeable: warm, with occasional heavy showers. Wednesday was chosen as the day for the walk around and it started warm, windy and pretty well overcast but as were finishing in Fames Rough (Sections 3 & 4) the heavens opened for about 15 minutes. As we headed for the shelter of the trees we saw butterflies still flying in the downpour – possibly heading for the nearest shelter just as we did. The trees kept the worst of the rain off us until it stopped and within a few minutes the sun broke through, enabling us to resume our transect.

We saw our first Purple Hairstreaks of 2021 in the oak trees alongside the path of Hillwood Field (Section 7). Since we started the transect in 2015 we've only seen PHs for a single transect per summer: the exception to this was 2017 when we saw them for the three transects walked between mid-July to mid-August. Here's hoping they're still around for our next transect.

We also had our first sighting of the newly emerged Chalk Hill Blues on Stagbury (Section 11).

The heavy shower probably reduced the number of butterflies for the second and sunnier half of our day's count but the numbers we saw were spread quite well across all of the sections. So, less than half of last week's number, not too bad a count considering the 'iffy' conditions.

Count details:
109 Meadow Brown
35 Gatekeeper
14 Chalk Hill Blue
13 Marbled White
9 Ringlet
6 Small/Essex Skipper (3 Small, 2 Essex and 1 unconfirmed)
5 Purple Hairstreak
4 Dark Green Fritillary
4 Silver-washed Fritillary
3 Small Heath
3 Green-veined White
3 Peacock
2 Common Blue
2 Comma
2 Large White
1 Clouded Yellow
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Total: 215 butterflies from 17 species.

Essex Skipper

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

Silver-washed Fritillary

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Hot and sultry

21/7/2021

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Tuesday's transect was the hottest and most sultry walk of this year but the butterflies loved it and were out in good numbers, so today's count of 524 was our highest since the bumper year of 2019.

Numbers were high thanks to the Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Ringlets and Small/Essex Skippers as per last week but these were boosted by the Brimstones, Gatekeepers and Large Whites. We also saw our first Clouded Yellows of the season. About this time on previous years we've started to see the first Chalkhill Blues and second brood of the Common Blues but, apart from three Commons, there was no sign of their mass emergence in time for this week's transect.

As well as the highest total number for a couple of years it was also a very good transect for the number of species recorded,18 (six more than last week).

Count details:
175 Meadow Brown
167 Marbled White
39 Small/Essex Skipper
30 Gatekeeper
27 Brimstone
24 Ringlet
18 Small Heath
12 Large White
6 Small White
5 Dark Green Fritillary
4 Clouded Yellow
4 Speckled Wood
3 Common Blue
3 Comma
2 Red Admiral
2 Silver-washed Fritillary
2 Large Skipper
1 Small Copper
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham K submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Report by Brian Gardner, pics by Graham Kenward
Click on pics to enlarge.

Dark Green Fritillary, Fames Rough

Silver-washed Fritillary, Fames Rough

Comma on bramble, Harholt Plantation

Male Brimstone, Fames Rough

Meadow Brown on Marjoram

Gatekeeper on bramble

Two Marbled Whites on Scabious

Marbled White in spider's web, Coneyboro Hill

Red Admiral on Nettle

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Our numbers up

15/7/2021

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The weather for Wednesday's transect was rather cloudy and windy. Fortunately the butterflies were not deterred: our total count shot up from 104 last week to 449. This was mainly due to the Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Ringlets and Small/Essex Skippers.

For the few weeks of the summer's peak season, high butterfly numbers result from populations being spread throughout our transect's 12 sections, whereas for the lower season counts are largely centred on Fames Rough with fewer butterflies being seen elsewhere.

Count details:
174 Marbled White
128 Meadow Brown
61 Ringlet
52 Small/Essex Skipper (positive identifications of 3 Small and 1 Essex)
17 Small Heath
5 Comma
4 Dark Green Fritillary
2 Large Skipper
2 Large White
2 Small White
1 Red Admiral
1 Small Copper
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Marbled White on Knapweed

Small Skipper & Thick-thighed Beetle

Small Skipper on Red Clover

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

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Butterflies in the rain

7/7/2021

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Wednesday was the day we'd selected for transect 14. The weather forecast was for better conditions than we were actually faced with at the start – windy with light rain. We thought that would deter any butterflies but even on a bleak Section 1 (Hither Field) we saw a Dark Green Fritillary, a Large Skipper, a Marbled White and two Meadow Browns. As we passed Section 1's still flowering Kidney Vetch, GK measured how far the furthest outlying clump of KV had spread from the plot of our original KV planting and found it was an impressive 40 metres.

In Sections 2, 3 and 4 (Coneyboro and Fames Rough) we recorded a minor explosion in the number of Marbled Whites, and in Section 3 (the outward path through Fames Rough) we saw our first Ringlets of the season. We saw no butterflies in Sections 5 and 6 and so, as we emerged from the comparative shelter of Harhalt into the driving rain of Hill Wood Field, we called a halt to the transect as conditions were worsening.

Here are the figures recorded for Sections 1 to 6:
66 Marbled White
15 Meadow Brown
12 Ringlet
7 Small Skipper
2 Dark Green Fritillary
1 Large Skipper
1 Small Heath
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Total: 104 butterflies from 7 species.

Male Small Skipper, Fames Rough

Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham K submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Report by Brian Gardner, pics by Graham Kenward
Click on pics to enlarge.