Missing the Blues

10/6/2020

This week's transectuals in Fames Rough, l-r: Graham Kenward, Roger Vye, Brian Gardner, Graham Harris.

Report from Brian G.
Yesterday morning four of us (shown above), walked this week's transect. Although we got off to a warm and sunny start, the weather soon deteriorated to cool and cloudy conditions. We saw 90% of the butterflies while the favourable conditions lasted (while we were walking the first four sections). Meadow Browns were the only species that were out in any number, we counted 35 (three more than last week), but also saw two Marbled Whites (the first of this season). The Large Skippers are still hanging on. And, despite Bill Downey's success in finding his lone Small Blue at the Lagoon over the weekend, we didn't manage to find one, although we had a thorough look at the KV patches. In fact, we didn't even see a Common Blue, which in previous years have been plentiful about this time. All in all it was a poor week: we saw fewer butterlies from fewer species than last week when we saw 88 butterflies from 11 species.

This week's count:
35 Meadow Brown
9 Large Skipper
7 Small Heath
4 Dark Green Fritillary
4 Small Tortoiseshell
2 Marbled White
1 Brimstone
1 Green Hairstreak
1 Small Copper

Total number of butterflies: 62 from 9 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

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