Butterfly Blog - WOODCHIPS

Shorter days, fewer butterflies

13/9/2019

The fine weather forecast for yesterday was slow arriving and we started our walk around in overcast, breezy conditions and even had a few minutes of a rain shower which once cleared gave way to a steady improvement.

With the onset of the autumn's shorter days and cooler nights, the number of butterflies seen is falling away rapidly. Two weeks ago our count was 209, last week it was 112 and this week it was down to 46 (from 7 species).

Count Details:

15 Meadow Brown
9 Small White
8 Brown Argus
6 Small Heath
6 Speckled Wood
1 Common Blue
1 Painted Lady

Click on butterfly names for more info.

Speckled Wood, Barn Field

Survey on 12-9-19 by Brian G, Graham K and Graham H, submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info by Brian G.

Pics by Graham K.
Click pics to enlarge.

Faded Brown Argus butterfly

Brown Argus butterfly

Field Scabious above Devil's BIt Scabious

Meadow Brown butterfly

Temperature and butterflies down

3/9/2019

Today's weather was fine, sunny and pleasantly warm – certainly an easier temperature than last week's unseasonable heat. The number of butterflies has approximately halved since last Tuesday's transect. The most numerous species were the Meadow Browns, Common Blues and Brown Arguses.

Count details:

57 Meadow Brown
20 Common Blue
13 Brown Argus
6 Small Heath
6 Small White
5 Chalkhill Blue
1 Large White
3 Brimstone
1 Green-veined White

Total: 112 butterflies across 9 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Survey on 2-9-19 by Brian G and Andy K, submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info by Brian G.

Hot stuff

28/8/2019

With temperatures rising above the 30 degree mark, yesterday's transect was an exceptionally hot one. This unusual late season heat has encouraged the flowers on which the butterflies feed to carry on producing nectar and correspondingly our butterflies are still around in reasonable numbers (albeit in fewer species), especially the Meadow Browns, Common Blues and Brown Arguses and Small Heaths.

We recorded a total of 249 butterflies across 9 species. For the equivalent week's transect in 2016 our count was 165 from 11 species, in 2017 it was139 from 12, and last year it was 60 from 9. There's quite a difference between 2018 and this year.

Count details:

115 Meadow Brown
49 Common Blue
28 Brown Argus
26 Small Heath
8 Large White
4 Chalkhill Blue
2 Small White
1 Brimstone
2 Gatekeeper

Click on butterfly names for more info.

Male Common Blue, Stagbury

Survey on 28-8-19 by Brian G, Graham H and Graham K, submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info by Brian G. Pics by Graham K.

Click on pics to enlarge.

Chalkhill Blue butterfly

Female Common Blue butterfly

Gatekeeper butterfly

Grasshopper

Summer returns

24/8/2019

Summer returned for Friday's transect. We had warm sunny weather all the way round and this brought out the butterflies, especially the Meadow Browns, Common Blues and Brown Arguses.

Here are the details of yesterday's count:

123 Meadow Brown
38 Common Blue
34 Brown Argus
12 Chalkhill Blue
9 Small Heath
9 Small White
7 Brimstone
3 Gatekeeper
2 Silver-washed Fritillary
2 Small Copper
1 Large White

Total: 240 butterflies across 11 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Small Copper, Fames Rough

Survey on 23-8-19 by Brian G, Graham H and Graham K, submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info by Brian G. Pics by Graham K.
Click pics to enlarge.

Brimstone butterfly

Brown Argus butterfly

Faded female Common Blue butterfly

Mating Meadow Brown butterflies

Meadow Brown butterfly

Worn Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly

Weather window

16/8/2019

This week's variable weather gave us a small window of opportunity in which to do our transect on Thursday, and for most of our walk around the sky was virtually clear, providing excellent conditions. Upon starting out in Section 1 (Hither Field) we saw straight away that the field had been mowed, clearing the grass and with it most of the wildflowers. We were relieved to see that some of our nurtured Kidney Vetch, being a low-level plant, had escaped the mower blades so there is still some hope that the patch will have seeded next year's plants.

Butterfly numbers are declining by the week but Meadow Browns are still seen in reasonable numbers; the Chalkhill and Common Blue numbers are holding steady despite having a poor season and Brown Argus even showed a slight increase over last week's figure.

Here are the details of what we saw:

122 Meadow Brown
20 Chalkhill Blue
17 Common Blue
15 Brown Argus
7 Small Heath
7 Gatekeeper
6 Small Copper
4 Large White
3 Brimstone
3 Small White
2 Dark Green Fritillary
1 Small/Essex Skipper
1 Silver-washed Fritillary
1 Speckled Wood

Summary: 208 butterflies across 14 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Survey on 15-8-19 by Brian G and Graham H.
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info and pics by Brian G.

Chalkhill Blue

Silver-washed Fritillary

Small Copper on Scabious

Common Blue

Calm before the storm

9/8/2019

Yesterday was the last warm fine weather (with intermittent cloud cover) before the forecast summer storm hit overnight. The late season decline in numbers is becoming quite noticeable now. The Marbled Whites and Small/Essex Skippers were absent today; Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns are still around but in fewer numbers and the number of Chalkhills was probably at its peak. The long-predicted horde of Painted Ladies (the butterflies, of course) has still not reached our patch yet but we recorded and photographed one individual in Section 1.

Here are the details of what we saw:

111 Meadow Brown
64 Gatekeeper
35 Chalkhill Blue
12 Common Blue
7 Brown Argus
5 Brimstone
4 Large White
2 Small Heath
2 Dark Green Fritillary
2 Silver-washed Fritillary
2 Ringlet
2 Small Copper
1 Painted Lady

Common Blue on Marjoram

Summary: 249 butterflies across 13 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Survey on 8-8-19 by Brian G and Graham H.
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info and pics by Brian G.

Painted Lady

Chalkhill Blue

Dark Green Fritillary

More species this week

30/7/2019

Following last week's record heat and the subsequent downpours, we counted fewer numbers overall but we recorded 18 species, one more than the season's previous best of a fortnight ago. We saw more Common Blues than last week, the Chalkhill Blues were out in good numbers and we saw our first Brown Arguses. In addition, we had higher than usual counts of Brimstone, Silver-washed Fritillary and Peacock.

Although we didn't see any cattle in Section 1 of the transect it looked as though they had singled out our Kidney Vetch patch as the best spot in Hither Field to have a roll. There were cowpats around to indicate they were the culprit(s).

Survey on 30-7-19 by Brian G and Graham H.
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info by Brian G.

Here are this week's details:
124 Meadow Brown
115 Gatekeeper
27 Chalkhill Blue
23 Marbled White
19 Brimstone
14 Common Blue
12 Brown Argus
10 Peacock
7 Silver-washed Fritillary
5 Ringlet
4 Dark Green Fritillary
3 Small/Essex Skipper
3 Large White
3 Small White
3 Small Copper
2 Small Heath
2 Red Admiral
2 Speckled Wood

Total: 376 butterflies across 18 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Scorchio!

26/7/2019

It was a very hot walk around that yielded a drop-off in numbers of Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites, Small/Essex Skippers, Small Heaths and Ringlets than we've recorded over recent weeks, but a rise in sightings of Chalkhill Blues, Gatekeepers, Brimstones and Peacocks. Still very few Common Blues, when in previous seasons we've seen large numbers of them.

Here's the detail of what we recorded:

144 Gatekeeper
131 Meadow Brown
76 Marbled White
18 Small/Essex Skipper
20 Chalkhill Blue
14 Ringlet
11 Brimstone
8 Dark Green Fritillary
7 Peacock
6 Small Heath
3 Common Blue
3 Large White
2 Silver-washed Fritillary
1 Large Skipper

Total: 444 butterflies across 14 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Survey on 24-7-19 by Brian G, Graham H and Graham K.
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info by Brian G.

Peacock Butterfly

Peacock, Coneyboro HIll

Click on pics to enlarge.
Pics © Graham Kenward 2019.

Ringlet Butterfly

Ringlet, Coneyboro Hill

Common Blue Butterfly

Common Blue, Fames Rough

Southern Hawker dragonfly

Southern Hawker, Coneyboro Hill

Highest number of species

18/7/2019

Although the weather was borderline hot and calm, we didn't get the high butterfly numbers that might have been expected, however we recorded the highest number of species this year: 561 butterflies across 17 species. Although less numerous than recent weeks, the Meadow Browns and Marbled Whites still provided our highest counts with the newly emerged Gatekeepers as the third highest count. We also saw the first of this season's Chalkhill Blues close to our nurtured Horseshoe Vetch area in Stagbury Field and Purple Hairstreaks along the line of oaks in Hill Wood Field. The complete absence of Common Blues was worrying as in previous years they have been seen in high numbers at this point in the season. Our count figures have been entered on the BCT website.

Count details:
196 Marbled White
190 Meadow Brown
56 Gatekeeper
34 Small/Essex Skipper
34 Ringlet
13 Small Heath
8 Dark Green Fritillary
8 Small White
5 Large White
4 Brimstone
4 Chalkhill Blue
2 Purple Hairstreak
2 Silver-washed Fritillary
2 Comma
1 Large Skipper
1 Peacock
1 Speckled Wood

Overall total: 561 butterflies across 17 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Marbled White on Scabious, Stagbury

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

Hover over pics for captions. Click on pics to enlarge. All pics © Graham Kenward 2019.

Chalkhill Blue

Mating Gatekeeper butterflies

Crab Spider on Marjoram

Dark Green Fritillary

Gatekeeper butterfly

Musk Mallow

Small/Essex Skipper

Teazel

Wednesday's butterflies

11/7/2019

We had warm but overcast weather, and the day’s count was lower than last week's record, although still substantial. The Marbled Whites put the greatest risk of RSI on the clicker, but Meadow Browns were the only species that appeared in all 12 sections of the transect. No Small or any other Blues this time, but it's encouraging that the Kidney Vetch flowering in Hither Field has spread further than last year. And a lack of Speckled Woods in their usual haunts, despite their imminent main flight season.

The details are:
391 Marbled White
241 Meadow Brown
42 Small/Essex Skipper
24 Small Heath
16 Ringlet
6 Silver-washed Fritillary
5 Small White
4 Large Skipper
2 Red Admiral
2 Dark Green Fritillary

Overall total: 733 butterflies across 10 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

Worn Red Admiral on Bramble, Harholt Plantation

Survey by Graham H and Graham K.
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Info and pics by Graham K.

Hover over pics for captions. Click on pics to enlarge.

Cinnabar Moth caterpillars on Ragwort

Silver-washed Fritillary

Dark Green Fritillary

Gatekeeper butterfly

Pyramidal Orchids

Male Meadow Brown