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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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.  Marbled White, Fames Rough In bloom on the transect As two key members of our transect team will be elsewhere for most of this transect week (13/26) and Saturday's weather forecast was showing it to be the best of the remaining days of week 13, Graham H and Brian made the unprecedented decision to do the butterfly count on a Saturday. It was only three days since our week 12 transect, so for a change we did the walk in reverse sequence, starting out in bright warm sunshine which became rather more patchy as we proceeded. Meadow Browns and Small Heaths had the highest count (both with similar numbers to last week's figures) followed by a rapid advance in the number of Marbled Whites. We saw our first Small Skipper (just the one) and our second highest count of the spectacular Dark Green Fritillaries (five were in Fames Rough and seven in Stagbury Field). With only three Common Blues sighted, we can only conclude that the CBs early summer brood has peaked: their second brood should emerge in about a month's time. The butterfly numbers recorded for this season remain comparatively low but Saturday's count offers hope that we'll be seeing more over the next few weeks.
 Small Skipper UPDATE: last Wednesday's transect (23/6/2021)
Survey by Brian Gardner and Graham H submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Report by Brian Gardner.
Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H, Graham K, Duncan Jennings and Roger Vye submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS). Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham Kenward. Click on pics to enlarge.  Our transectuals outline the increased area of Kidney Vetch (food plant of the Small Blue) flowering in Hither Field.  Blooming this week: Yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata), Coneyboro Hill
Report by Brian G. Pics by Graham Kenward. Click on pics to enlarge.
More pics from the day  Fames Rough for Ant & Vetch The transect team chose Monday morning to do this week's butterfly count and although the weather held fair for the first four sections, by the end of Section 8 the rain started at which point we decided to abandon the transect. We saw all but one of the day's butterflies in the brief sunshine on Coneyboro Hill and Fames Rough (section 2, 3 & 4) . In these three consecutive sections we recorded 18 Dingy Skippers, 2 Brimstones, and 1 Grizzled Skipper, and ended the count with a single Speckled Wood (the first this year, so far) in the wooded footpath between Hill Wood Field and Barn Field. For comparison, Week 7 of 2020 was our first transect following the first Covid 19 lockdown, and in obviously better weather than we encountered today we counted 42 Dingy Skippers, 21 Brimstones, 13 Common Blues, 7 Small Heaths, 2 Peacocks and 1 Small White and 1 Green-veined White. Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham Kenward submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS). Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham Kenward. Click on pics to enlarge.
Dingy & Grizzled Skippers, both favouring Germander Speedwell.
 Milkwort, Coneyboro Hill
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The TransectualsHere 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. Archives
September 2021
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