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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Here we are at Week 10, and we're still waiting for the 2022 season to provide butterflies in anything like their normal numbers. GH and BG walked this week's transect on Thursday and, with a temperature of 24C, plenty of sun and only a gentle breeze, conditions were ideal but this week's total of 34 was disappointing and possibly worrying. The usually reliable highest scoring two sections of Fames Rough were bettered by Hill Wood Field's score of only 8 butterflies. But it wasn't all bad: we saw our first Large Skipper, Small Tortoiseshell and Meadow Browns. We also did our usual check of the Kidney Vetch patches, especially as it's now Small Blue season. The KV on Hither Field is just starting to come through and the KV in the fenced-off square in Barn Field is more advanced and has begun flowering but no butterflies were seen there. However we were advised that beside the Stagbury Lagoon there was a a mass of KV in full flower which was attracting numbers of Small Blues. GH and BG went to the Lagoon to investigate after finishing the transect's set route and were amazed to see a sizeable area thick with knee-high bright yellow KV that was busy with bees. Sure enough, there were also SBs flitting about – easy to see but difficult to count because of their small size, their agility and the density of the flowers. We estimated that at any one time there were at least four SBs in sight. The Lagoon's KV is the most successful that we've propagated so far and hopefully will encourage other SBs to visit our other patches as they come into flower.
Blooming well out there
Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham K submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham K. Click on pics to enlarge.
Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham K submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Brian Gardner and Graham K. Click on pics to enlarge.
This sunny, dry but windy April has provided temperatures that occasionally lifted above those favoured by butterflies and we have been lucky to being able to walk three of the first four transects in reasonably suitable conditions. GH, GK and BG did this season's fourth transect on Sunday afternoon, once again starting the circuit at Section 10. Despite the warmer temperature, there was a strong NE breeze and, except for one Brimstone seen in each of Sections 8 and 11, the day's focus for counting was entirely in the more sheltered Fames Rough and Harholt Plantation (Sections 2 to 5). As for the previous two transects, it was the Brimstones and Peacocks that were out in the highest numbers, along with Commas and Orange Tips but we also recorded our first Dingy Skippers on Coneyboro and Fames Rough, plus a single Holly Blue.
Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham K submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS). Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham K. Click on pics to enlarge. The Easter weekend was warm and sunny and so we (GH, GK & BG) decided to do the transect on Sunday afternoon. Anticipating that the Ramblers Rest car park would be jammed with the cars of lunchtime diners, we parked in the also crowded Holly Lane car park and joined the transect route at Stagbury Field (Section 10). Peacocks were enjoying the fine weather around most of our route with singles on the more exposed easterly facing fields and 12 counted in the sheltered Fames Rough. Last week we recorded an equal number of Peacocks and Brimstones, but for this week's count the Brimstones were less evident. We also saw our first Comma and Orange Tips of the new season.
Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham K. Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham K.
Click on pics to enlarge. Last week's cool weather was thought unsuitable for butterflies and we gave the first transect of the 2022 season a miss. The forecast for week 2 was not very encouraging either, with the exception of Monday, which offered borderline temperatures with a mix of sun and cloud but also strong winds. We decided to give it a try. At the start of our transect circuit at Hither Field (Section 1) it was sunny but with a strong headwind which persisted across Coneyboro Hill (Section 2) – recently cleared of much of the scrub by Surrey Wildlife Trust. Dropping down into the normally sheltered Fames Rough (Sections 3 & 4), the wind was still noticeable and we saw Brimstones hurrying by and Peacocks flitting about and sunning themselves on the sun-warmed paths. We also had a fly-by from a Red Admiral. Leaving Fames Rough we saw another couple of Brimstones in the wooded section (5) between Fames and Harholt Plantation (Section 6). On Hill Wood Field (Section 7) there was a single Peacock. Barn Field and Great Parsons Field (Sections 8 to 12) were open to the wind and largely shaded – we counted no butterflies there.
PS. While unlocking the gate to Coneyboro we found a Common Lizard by the gate-post (see pic). In Fames Rough we also spotted an Orange Underwing Moth (see pic). Survey by Brian Gardner, Graham H and Graham K submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Report by Brian Gardner. Pics by Graham K. Click on pics to enlarge. Apart from the availability of members of the team, the week’s weather forecast is the next most important factor when choosing the day for the weekly transect – butterflies do not like the cold or wet. Even though the frequently poor weather of the spring caused us to miss three transect weeks, we found 23 sufficiently warm and/or dry days over the rest of the season’s 26 possible weeks for our transects (although one was abandoned half way round because of the onset of a heavy downpour). Despite generally getting it right weather-wise, we were aware quite early in the season that our butterfly counts were on the low side this year, and it didn’t seem that the weather was entirely to blame. We were not alone in this finding: Bill Downey of BCT reported that butterfly numbers reported across the region had dropped this year. To illustrate the situation: below are the average numbers of butterflies from our individual transects over each of the following years: 2021’s figure reflects a low count across many of the species we have recorded on our site since we started our transects in 2016. The major ‘losers’ on our patch were the Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites, Gatekeepers, Small Heaths, Common Blues and Chalkhill Blues, all of which we rely on to provide the large numbers to boost our annual totals. Even our flourishing area of Kidney Vetch on Hither Field only produced two Small Blues for us to record. There were, however, a few ‘gainers’: these were the Peacocks, Purple Hairstreaks and Clouded Yellows, which recorded higher counts than usual, although these are species seen in relatively small numbers that do not have a significant bearing on our annual tallies.
Here is a spreadsheet showing the count details for each transect for this and previous years. Report 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
May 2024
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