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.