Numbers dipping

18/8/2023

The usual transect team (GH, GK and BG) were joined by former transect regular, Duncan, for Thursday morning's butterfly count. The weather was warm with a fairly strong SW breeze and, after a start with a mix of sun and cloud, the sun broke through quite strongly. Despite the reasonable conditions, we soon noticed that we were seeing fewer butterflies than over the past few weeks. Most noticeable number dips were for the Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers, Common Blues, and Brimstones, while the Brown Argus numbers were slightly up on last week's count. We're now over half way into the Chalkhill Blue season but our sighting of six last week and five for this week it looks like being a poor year for them. The Purple Hairstreaks were difficult to spot but, after looking for them high in the trees, we found the first one at lower level and available for photographing, but the second sighting was true to form and way up in the oak tree amongst the leaves: as was said on the transect, "it's easy to spot - it's next to the acorn!" Well, I couldn't see it.

Count details:
120 Meadow Brown
59 Brown Argus
31 Common Blue
13 Gatekeeper
13 Small Heath
7 Brimstone
5 Chalkhill Blue
4 Small Copper
3 Small White
2 Holly Blue
2 Red Admiral
2 Purple Hairstreak
1 Silver-washed Fritillary
Summary:
262 butterflies from 13 species.

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