posted by Catherine on Jun 13
That just means taking part in a butterfly counting survey to assess the surrounding environment!
A few months ago there was a nighttime lepidoptera survey taking account of local moths – but now the daytime equivalent is approaching – and a lot more people can join in!
All you have to do is go sit in your garden, a local park, national park or nearby woodland and watch the butterflies passing by! You can even do this on a walk in the countryside or along a riverbank and count the butterflies that you pass by! Sir David Attenborough will be taking part too – as will Alan Titchmarsh!
It takes place in the height of summer (24th July – 1st August) as most of the native butterflies are in their adult form at that time – and the bright sunshine is what makes them active! This gives you plenty of time to learn to id British butterflies before the survey…..
Step 1:
So to get prepared – go to their website and download yourself a butterfly identification sheet to show the most common butterflies that you will encounter on the count.
By learning these few, it will help you to better participate in the count as many butterflies look very similar to others unless they land closeby to you and hold their wings open until you have a good look!
By looking out for these species in advance of the count you will have learnt to identify some of the more common types in advance, so you can focus on learning many more species. If you just turn up on the day with the id sheet, you won’t be able to give as good results as if you had put in a bit of advance research!
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly
Step 2:
Read the Butterfly Conservation website for great advice about butterflies, moths and our environment. They believe that these creatures react very quickly to environmental changes and so can be seen as a great indicator or environmental change – hence the survey.
Butterflies are plant specific in that the adults feed (mainly) on one plant species, and their young will feed (mainly) on another single species – and this is where they lay their eggs. Therefore if certain plants are becoming rarer or more abundant in response to changing habitats, industrial pollution or the effects of changing climate - these species will have to move from one region to another.
By mapping these movements and general trends over time, they will be able to monitor such national changes and try to see if there are any changes we could make to reverse or encourage such trends.
Step 3:
The count itself takes place between the given dates and you can do as many counts you want in that time and in as many different locations as well.
This means that you can not only help out with the research by submitting more than 1 set of results, but that you can take your new found identification skills out to new habitats to see – and identify – as many different butterfly species as possible.
For example; sitting in my mum’s garden I mainly see speckled woods, in my sisters garden it is large whites and on the South Downs it is peacocks and small tortoiseshells! It all depends on the proximity of their food and egg plants in the main – and by finding an established sallow plantation (and a lot of luck I am told) I saw my first purple emperor!
Anyway – record your sightings during just a 15 minute period at any time throughout the survey week following the guidelines on the website, and then you have up until the end of August 2010 to submit your results on the website form online.
Step 4:
Now you know how to identify some common butterfly species – why not take part in other surveys in your area for the Butterfly Conservation Trust or other local or national groups?
Any by finding their associated plants you could then learn more about their habitats and start to become involved at a local nature reserve surveying plants as well. It take time to get to learn identification skills – so you need to get lots of practice.
And once you have the skills – why not put them to good use?
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