Late valley butterflies

In what has been generally not a very good year for butterflies, walks down the permissive path to Ashton  last week have yielded a surprising number of  them. Species such as Red Admiral, though low in numbers during the hot summer month, have continued to fly during the Indian Summer of October. and are still being seen on the south facing bank alongside he path. Also seen during the week were Small Copper, Small Heath and most remarkably of all a total of sixteen Clouded Yellows in the Open Access field just north of the cricket field. These were drifting eastwards and as this is a butterfly that doesn't survive our winters they may have been attempting a reverse migration. No picture I am afraid as they didn't settle long enough.

Season's Butterflies.

Butterfly Conservation.s formal butterfly couinting season runs from the begining of April to the end of September , with 32  'Transects", as the set routes are called, being walked weekly by volunteer recorders. Two of us from Martinstown record on the Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve at Tadnoll. This year's results have been rather disapointing, with a total of only 849 butterflies, a severe drop from the 2034 last year. I am wondering if this is a result of the very hot summer, as my bees have gathered only about a tenth of their usual crop of honey and so, though very active, ( flying 10,000 bee-miles per day!) seem not to have been able to collect much nectar. Maybe the butterflies have had the same problem and were short of food.

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The species mainly affected were Red Admiral (above, on this years excellent crop of Blackberries),  Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper. Only the three White species seem to have done well, perhaps benifiting from the cooler weather which finally arrived.
Now only the computer inputting remains to be completed, with the records going to the county butterfly recorder, and then, if he is happy, into the national records. These butterfly records are a very sensitive indicator of the state of the country's natural resourses and an important element in the fight to combat global warming.