Yesterday we hosted a butterfly ID day in our wood, run by Steve Wheatley from Butterfly Conservation and attended by about 10 SWOG (Small Woodland Owners Group) members.
We started with Steve giving us a talk about butterflies, and why identifying them and keeping centralised records is important. He needs lots of people like us to note down what we see and send records to him periodically, so that they can keep track of species numbers and use the information in scientific research and also in planning permission issues and other stuff like that. He also gave us some tips on how to ID butterflies, including the differences between the various white species, and using knowledge on which months the butterflies can be seen to help narrow down the choices.
We took a walk along the wayleave and also along our wildlife corridor, stopping at various points to talk about what we were seeing.
There was patchy cloud, so it wasn't a perfect day for butterfly spotting, but we still saw quite a few. Here's the ones I got pictures of. A Peacock, looking a bit ragged:
A Speckled Yellow - actually a day-flying moth rather than a butterfly:
A Brimstone - this is the first time I have ever seen one of these land so I could take a picture! A shame it wouldn't spread its wings out, but at least I now know a potential spot to go and try again.
We also saw some other interesting things as we went around, such as this bird nest up a pylon. Any ideas what it might be?
and in the wildlife corridor, where we were felling just a few months ago, as well as several butterflies we found an adder, which had probably been basking in the sun:
It didn't like the attention, and slithered off to a hole in a coppice stump - it certainly seemed to know exactly where to go and hide!
Mike
Monday, 4 May 2009
SWOG Butterfly ID day
Saturday, 3 May 2008
More people arrive...
My brother Andy and his family (Rachel and Joshua) turned up today, to add to the crowds in the wood! We were already up there, still doing track repairs, when they arrived.
Tracy was also cutting up some of the chestnut for some of our fellow allotment holders to use as pea sticks:
She collected 8ft bean poles too. We've been paid part cash and part in food (to come through the year...)
Given the stream of visitors we are expecting, I decided to make a couple more stools, using an old log for practice - hopefully I'll be getting them right first time before starting on the logs we specially saved earlier in the year.
Joshua found they suited him well:
I made a bench too, just by cutting two "V"s into a big log and resting it on some smaller ones. It looks lopsided because the left hand end has a bend in it - I trimmed it shorter later, just in case people sit on the very end and it tips up!
Cath bravely tested it:
While we were busy doing stuff we saw a sudden flash of yellow - a Brimstone butterfly. I chased it to try and get a picture (I had to run to keep up!) but sadly didn't manage to get one.
Here's a picture someone else took:
(courtesy of Wikimedia)
Tracy went on a walk around the further reaches of the wood, and got some good pics of bluebells:
a Peacock butterfly:
and the scum on the pond, which we think is pollen:
She also found that the little oak by the pond has been eaten by an insect of some sort...
Mike
