Butterfly bonanza at last!
With the recent warmer temperatures and sunnier days, we have seen an increase in the number and variety of butterflies across the reserve. The season has been quite slow up to now with a variety of butterflies being seen but not in large numbers, a picture that has been repeated not just on the reserve but in people’s gardens.
Brimstones and orange tips have been on the reserve since late spring but were the only species in flight for a long period of time. Slowly more species were seen with the first common blues and dingy skippers being recorded on 4th June and a speckled wood on the 5th. Later in June (22nd) saw the appearance of cinnabar moth, meadow brown, painted lady and large skipper. A ringlet was first recorded on 24th June and small tortoiseshells seen across the reserve from the 27th feeding on the flowering brambles and then knapweed, particularly on north scrub at the north end of D reservoir. The beginning of July saw more sightings of meadow brown and ringlet in higher numbers and also an increase in the number of small tortoise shells.
Red
admiral was recorded on the 1st July, six spot burnet on 5th
and the first marbled white on north scrub meadow on 9th July with
small and large whites recorded too from the beginning of July. A comma
butterfly along the path around the north end of D reservoir on the 17th
but as yet (22nd July) no one has notified us of seeing a peacock.
Up until the 8th August you can record your
butterfly sightings to Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count and be part
of this fantastic nationwide data collection; brilliant citizen science for
everyone to be involved in. Either log your records, as many as you can do, on
their website or download the Big Butterfly Count app onto your smartphone and
send off the data from the field immediately. The app comes with a good
identification guide and is very user friendly and a great way to involve all
the family whether its on a trip to the reserve, out on a walk on holiday or a
record of the butterflies in your garden, all valuable data records.
Of course butterflies are just one of thousands of flying
insects to be found around the reserve and with the 748th species of
moth having been trapped overnight this month, they certainly deserve some
focus but that’s for a separate blog.
Thank you to all visitors for posting their sightings, in
particular to Pat Hogarth
