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GK, BG and Liz North walked this week's transect on Thursday. Liz has worked on a few of our main WoodChip tasks earlier this year and proved very knowledgeable and useful on this week's transect. We missed the best day this week, Monday, and Thursday was the only reasonable choice remaining before the end of the week, The weather was warm, rather than hot, and was mainly cloudy: it rained for a short time when we were in Fames Rough but towards the end of our walk we had a glimpse of the sun. These slightly iffy conditions didn't totally deter the butterflies and we ended up with a fairly good count of 339 (approx half of last week's score) from 16 species. Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites, Small/Essex Skippers, Gatekeepers and Ringlets provided our highest numbers of the day, and we also saw the season's first Silver-washed Fritillaries. Here you'll find a spreadsheet showing the weekly counts for this season and those of previous years. Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham K and Liz North
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS). Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham K Click pics to enlarge.
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.
Survey by Graham H and Brian Gardner
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS). Report and pics by Brian Gardner. Click pics to enlarge.
Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham K. Click pics to enlarge.
Sorry there are no photos of butterflies this week – they were skittish in the hot sun and didn't pose for snaps.
This cool, unpredictable spring continues with only rare breaks of warm weather. Saturday was forecast to offer one of those breaks, once the morning's cloud dispersed. It was only as I parked the car that the sun finally made its appearance and the cloud thinned rapidly to reveal a very pleasant afternoon for a butterfly count. We recorded butterflies across nine of the twelve sections but Fames Rough (section 3 and 4) with its warm, south-facing slope was where we counted the most individuals and species. The summer flowers are not yet showing in any great numbers and it will be interesting to see what comes through in the next few weeks. The ongoing scrub clearance work in Fames has disturbed the ground and it may take a while for some meadow flowers to re-establish themselves in the cleared areas, especially after their scorching in last summer's drought. Coneyboro Hill Field (section 2) once again has a small flock of goats who are intended to eat the dogwood scrub that has advanced over recent years. They gnawed the plants down to a height of six to eight inches last summer, perhaps they'll finish the job by taking them down to ground level this time around.
Survey by Graham H and Brian Gardner
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS). Report and pics by Brian Gardner. |
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
April 2024
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