First of the Year..

Yesterday we saw our first Brimstone of the year, resting on the cowslips and soaking up the sun..

If we are going to get some warmer weather, we'll be out on the butterfly surveys again very soon.

We did our first survey of 2014 on March 13th, so fingers crossed for sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Interestingly, our first ever survey was also done in March, in 2011 - our first full year living in Braye. We were introduced to it by our good friend, Susan, who writes a very informative natural history blog. It contains a wealth of information and is well worth a look!

To find out more about these surveys and for ways to get involved, please see here 

STERF Butterfly Survey July 2013

This month's butterfly survey was in complete contrast to the previous couple of months. We can report a plentiful supply of Gatekeeper....

.....Easy to spot, but not easy to count when there are Ragwort plants in the area and each stem covered with the creatures!

Ringlet were also there in number...

As were Marbled White...

It was encouraging to see the healthy number of Silver-washed Fritillary...

And a number of  *Large Skipper (Ochlodes venatus). Colin took this captivating shot of one in the flower of a Convolvulus...

When we looked back to July's survey for 2012 we noticed a striking similarity with today's results. Maybe things aren't all that bad in the Butterfly world!

* Thanks to Susan (see comments) for the ID.

STERF Butterfly Atlas Project June 2013

We chose today to do the butterfly survey for June as the weather was favourable to see butterflies in flight. The difference between this year's count for June and last year's was soon pretty obvious. To take an example:

June 2012  -  Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)  -  94

June 2013  -  Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)  -  10

The pattern was repeated with other species, though not quite so dramatically....

June 2012  -  Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)  -  42

June 2013  -  Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)  -  21

The only species which bucked this trend was the Meadow Brown with 14 counted last year and over 40 today.

All in all the butterflies were outnumbered by a selection of dragonflies, damsel flies and demoiselles..

They may not have been what we set out to spot but they certainly make for some colourful photographs!

Butterfly Atlas (STERF) project May 2013

Despite the wet weather earlier in the year we are ahead of ourselves with the 2013 surveys for STERF, the butterfly atlas project.

Conditions were just about perfect yesterday when we went to do the survey but we got off to a slow start. Sections which had butterflies coming at us from all angles last year were all but devoid of them this year.

However we did see some lovely specimens further on.

First off, and by far the most prolific, was the notoriously hard to photograph Orange Tip.... Colin did manage to get a photo of its underwing and a blurred in-flight shot.

We fared better in the garden this afternoon!

This is the first Map Butterfly we have seen this season. It looked in splendid condition

The Speckled Wood put in a few appearances..

So, too, did the distinctive Brimstone

Then we spotted one of our favourites, the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary

 

Again, this was in fine condition and very kindly allowed us to take its photograph... unlike the Orange Tip!!

Butterfly Atlas 2013 - April

Two things conspired today to make us go and do our first butterfly survey (STERF) for 2013:

We have seen quite a number of butterflies in the garden over the last few days and also the weather was just right. It was warm and sunny with a light breeze.

Disappointingly we didn't see as many butterflies as we had expected. Whether this is due to the excessive rainfall over the winter/spring we cannot be sure at this stage.

However there was a small contingent of Peacock butterflies, several more Orange Tip and Brimstone, one or two Holly Blue and the odd (distinctly battered) Wall Brown...

As always the Orange Tip evaded capture by the camera and the Common Blue chose the least attractive spot to land and be photographed!

However to compensate for the lack of butterflies, the Cowslips were out in force on the bankings and in the wooded area.

We'll have to wait now and see what May's survey highlights. Perhaps by then the section of the survey area which was still flooded today will have dried out sufficiently to avoid having to swim across!

Happy Days!

STERF Butterfly Survey August 2012

Wednesday afternoon we completed the August survey for the STERF Butterfly Atlas Project.

In many respects things had not changed much from last months survey. The Gatekeeper and the Speckled Wood being in abundance but many of them looking worse for wear.

 But not all...

New arrivals this month included the summer brood Map Butterfly (thanks Tim)

and the Wall Brown

The Peacock was also quite abundant...

BUT the star of the show had to be the Swallowtail who was kind enough to pose for the camera.

Closely followed by...

Another survey bites the dust... except for the writing up...

STERF Butterfly Survey July 2012

We left it until the last minute but this afternoon we managed to complete the July survey for the STERF Butterfly Atlas Project.

The weather has not been in our favour, this year, and of course this has impacted on the butterfly population. However, today a few species were out in force.

The Gatekeeper was the most prolific..

closely followed by the Meadow Brown..

One species which we saw in some number last year at this time was the Silver-washed Fritillary. This year's count was down somewhat but Colin was determined to capture the wonderful colours of this bright butterfly..

Of course we can't help but spot other creatures and damsel flies always make for an excellent photo opportunity

All that remains now is for me to write up the data collected today... and, if I'm honest, that's not really my favourite bit!!

Belated Butterfly Survey

Due to other commitments I haven't written a post about the June survey we did for the STERF Butterfly Atlas project. Well better late than never; so here's the belated post..

The weather had been less than kind and we weren't expecting much but before we got out of the car we realised we'd been mistaken. 


Marbled Whites were coming at us from all angles... We soon realised that the best we could do was make an educated guess at how many we had seen. It was impossible to count them all individually..

This pair of Ringlet were happy to pose for photographs, but not all the butterflies we saw were so obliging! Again, these were plentiful, though not in quite the same numbers as the Marbled White.

We didn't manage to get a 'wings open' shot of what I think may be a Gatekeeper - I await confirmation or otherwise on this one!

However, we were lucky with this beautiful Fritillary, which I think may be the Dark Green Fritillary. The photo showing its underside does make me wonder though....

The Skipper obviously loves Viper's Bugloss. This flower spike had several feeding on it.

From the colourful to the not so colourful now. The underside of this Wall Brown gives good camoflage against the ground cover. With its wings open it would not be nearly so well protected.

 And to end, another photo of the underside of a butterfly. I've included this shot mainly because I think Colin's captured the delicacy and balance of a butterfly perfectly here.

It's a stunner as far as I'm concerned! And my best guess is that it's a Speckled Wood!