Numbers shooting up

21/6/2023

GH, GK and BG walked their weekly transect on Monday afternoon. The hot weather, with sun and cloud and a noticeable southerly wind, obviously suited the butterflies because our count shot up from last week's count of 140 to a second highest ever Week 12 score of 267. This figure was largely due to the 184 Meadow Browns (seen in eleven of the twelve sections) and 45 newly emerged Marbled Whites (with all but 5 recorded in Fames Rough). The Small Heaths were also out in force, recording an eight-year high count for week 12. The only (butter)fly in the ointment was that we saw only eight species, whereas we would usually hope to see a dozen or more.

Bill Downey of the Butterfly Conservation Trust had advised that he had recently seen 12 Small Blues on the mass of Kidney Vetch around the Stagbury Lagoon, but this is not on our prescribed transect route. Bill also reported a couple of Small Blues on the KV now in full flower on our transect section 2 (Hither Field), but we were disappointed on this day.

Count details:
184 Meadow Brown
45 Marbled White
26 Small Heath
6 Common Blue
2 Large Skipper
2 Speckled Wood
1 Brown Argus
1 Ringlet

Summary:
267 Butterflies from 8 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Survey by Graham H, Graham K
and Brian Gardner
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).

Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham K.
Click pics to enlarge.