Butterfly Blog - WOODCHIPS

Last but one ...

23/9/2021

The weather for Wednesday's penultimate transect of 2021 was superb, but the day's count strongly pointed toward the end of this year's butterfly season: there were some frail and worn butterflies out there. The overall tally of 42 from 7 species was good when compared with Week 25 scores from previous years (2016 was 13, 2017 was 30, 2018 was 14, 2019 was 50 and 2020 was 32).

Here's what we counted:
29 Meadow Brown
3 Common Blue
3 Small White
2 Brown Argus
2 Small Heath
2 Speckled Wood
1 Comma
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 GK and BG.
Click on pics to enlarge.

Worn Brown Argus, Fames Rough

Worn Speckled Wood, Harholt

Meadow Brown, Fames Rough

Herdwick, Section 9

Two of the team (plus Treacle) climbing out of Fames Rough. -Brian G

Sunny intervals

15/9/2021

Despite the slightly cool and unpromising sky when we started Wednesday's count, the sun soon started to make occasional appearances, lifting the temperature and the butterflies along with it.

The 74 butterflies we recorded were half the number of last week's total, but on the plus side we counted 12 species, our best score since early August. Among these were several 'exotic' species: 3 Brown Hairstreaks on Hill Wood Field, a Painted Lady in Fames Rough, a Comma while negotiating the thorns, brambles and nettles between Fames Rough and Harholt Plantation, and a Red Admiral in Harholt P. Two of the Brown Hairstreaks were flying in the oaks on the top edge of Hill Wood Field where only a few weeks previously there had been Purple Hairstreaks. The third Brown Hairstreak was flying in the blackthorn bushes on the lower edge of the field – spotted just as GH commented that he'd never seen one on its blackthorn food plant!

Summary:
41 Meadow Brown
7 Small White
6 Common Blue
5 Small Heath
4 Brown Argus
3 Brown Hairstreak
3 Speckled Wood
1 Comma
1 Green-veined White
1 Painted Lady
1 Red Admiral
1 Small Copper
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Total: 74 butterflies from 12 species.

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.

Painted Lady, Fames Rough

Brown Hairstreak, Hill Wood Field

Comma on Blackberry, Harholt Plantation

Brown Hairstreak upperside, Hill Wood Field

Green-veined White on Field Scabious, Fames Rough

Red Admiral, Harholt Plantation

Sun Fly and Common Blue, Fames Rough

Common Darter, Fames Rough

Increasing scrub in the sadly neglected Fames Rough (and Coneyboro Hill) is making life difficult for butterflies and the volunteers who count them. The access path used by our team is rapidly disappearing under the rampant growth. Unfortunately, these areas do not fall under our remit, so we cannot currently maintain them.

Highest score

7/9/2021

On Monday, the day chosen for our transect, the hot weather returned and it was oppressively humid too. The warmth and late-summer sunshine brought out the year's remaining butterflies and also a Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell that could over-winter through to next year, if they can feed up sufficiently and find suitable shelter for their hibernation.

This week's total count of 141 butterflies is the highest week 23 score since we started doing the transects in 2016 when the count was 62. It was 66 in 2017, 35 in 2018, 112 in the superb butterfly summer of 2019, and 48 in 2020. However, this week's count is no indicator of any upward trend, as 2021's annual count looks like it will result in a lower than average total number. Below right are annual figures for three common species that show marked or even alarming declines. These drops in numbers may be due to normal seasonal variations or may be proof of an overall deterioration in environmental conditions.

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

Summary of this week's count:
70 Meadow Brown
29 Common Blue
25 Brown Argus
6 Small White
4 Brimstone
2 Small Heath
2 Speckled Wood
1 Red Admiral
1 Small Copper
1 Small Tortoiseshell
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Total: 141 from 10 species.

Small Tortoiseshell

Speckled Wood

Autumn Gentian, Fames Rough

Unappealing weather

2/9/2021

Tuesday's transect was walked in cloudy, lukewarm weather which, from the numbers we counted, did not greatly appeal to the butterflies. The number of species was down to only 5 compared with last week's 11, and the total count of butterflies was 104, against 221 last week.

Here's what we saw:
79 Meadow Brown
15 Brown Argus
8 Common Blue
1 Small Copper
1 Speckled Wood
Click on butterfly names for more info.

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

Brown Argus

Warmer week, bigger numbers

25/8/2021

The weather had perked up for Tuesday's transect and although not hot was pleasantly warm with some sunshine. We (the two Grahams and Brian) did the transect in reverse sequence. Section 12 on Great Parsons Field is virtually butterfly-free since it was mowed recently but in Sections 11,10, 9 and 8 we counted 71 Meadow Browns and 7 Chalk Hill Blues. The mowing of Great Parsons Field has concentrated the late summer butterflies onto the remaining edging strip of wild flowers, right on our Section 9 and 8 transect route.

The second butterfly hot-spot was the ever-reliable Fames Rough (Sections 4 and 3) where we saw Meadow Browns, Brown Argus, Common Blues, Brimstones and Small Coppers in good numbers, along with a few other species in lesser numbers.

Count details:
147 Meadow Brown
21 Common Blue
15 Brown Argus
9 Brimstone
8 Small Copper
7 Chalk Hill Blue
4 Small White
3 Gatekeeper
3 Speckled Wood
2 Small Heath
2 Silver-washed Fritillary
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Summary: 221 butterflies from 11 species.

Brown Argus -BG

Male Brimstone -BG

Chalk Hill Blue -GK

Male Common Blue -GK

Meadow Brown -GK

Silver-washed Fritillary -GK

Small Copper -GK

Small White -GK

Meadow Brown rescued from a spider's web.

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

Cool and cloudy

17/8/2021

Tuesday's transect, by Graham H and Brian, was done in minimal weather conditions. We got off to a poor start with only three Meadow Browns recorded in Section 1 (Hither Field) and nothing at all in the usually reliable Section 2 (Coneyboro Hill) but from Fames Rough onwards we saw a reasonable spread of species, albeit with reduced butterfly numbers because of the cool and cloudy conditions. Some of the butterflies were looking decidedly ragged: the photos below are obviously of a newly emerged, pristine second-brood Blue while the Small Copper looks like it's been around for a few weeks.

Count details:

61 Meadow Brown
14 Gatekeeper
4 Brown Argus
3 Common Blue
3 Chalk Hill Blue
3 Silver-washed Fritillary
3 Small Copper
1 Peacock
1 Small White
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Summary: 93 butterflies from 9 species.

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

Common Blue, wings closed

Not so pristine Small Copper

Common Blue, wings open

Another warm transect

12/8/2021

We had fine butterfly-spotting weather for Wednesday morning's transect. With the end of the season drawing near (only six weeks of transects remaining), this week's count may indicate the start of the final decline of butterfly numbers. However, Meadow Browns are still holding up quite well and the Chalk Hill and Common Blues, Brown Argus and Brimstones were out in good numbers too, but the Ringlets, Small Heaths and Marbled Whites seem to have finished. We were able to get good (if distant views) of the Purple Hairstreaks in the Hill Wood Field oaks.

Count details:
151 Meadow Brown
29 Gatekeeper
21 Common Blue
20 Chalk Hill Blue
18 Brimstone
10 Brown Argus
7 Small White
5 Peacock
5 Purple Hairstreak
4 Small Copper
3 Silver-washed Fritillary
2 Speckled Wood
2 Small/Essex Skipper (1 confirmed Essex)
1 Large Skipper
1 Holly Blue
1 Red Admiral
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Total: 280 butterflies from 16 species.

Small Copper on Marjoram

Horizontally Feeding Common Blue

Purple Hairstreak

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

Silver-washed Fritillary on Wild Parsnip

Better butterfly weather

3/8/2021

Just for a change the weather for Wednesday's transect was better than forecast, giving us a warm and mainly sunny morning for our walk around.

The Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers provided this week's big numbers, helped along by higher than usual counts of Peacocks and Brimstones. The Purple Hairstreaks were seen flying in the yew trees along the top edge of Fames Rough (Section 3) rather than the oaks bordering Hill Wood Field, where we saw them last week and over previous years.

Count details:
176 Meadow Brown
79 Gatekeeper
22 Chalk Hill Blue
20 Brimstone
14 Peacock
9 Common Blue
8 Marbled White
8 Silver-washed Fritillary
6 Ringlet
5 Small Copper
5 Small White
2 Large White
2 Purple Hairstreak
1 Small/Essex Skipper
1 Green-veined White
1 Red Admiral
Click on butterfly names for more info.
Total: 359 butterflies from 16 species.

Female Common Blue

Meadow Brown on Ragwort

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

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

Hot and sultry

21/7/2021

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

The Transectuals

Here you'll find details and pictures from the team carrying out our regular butterfly surveys (known as transects) over 26 weeks during Spring and Summer.

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