Wednesday 17th July saw over 25 MCV Members join the annual Butterfly Nature Walk on Studland Common.
It was a beautiful sunny morning which I’m sure encouraged many of the butterflies to make an appearance for us!
The New Forest Transect Group (NFTG) partners with MCV to carry out butterfly surveys on Studland Common. Surveys are done once a week by a member of the transect team from April through to September. NFTG has 120 recorders doing surveys on over 50 butterfly transects in and around the New Forest. Information gathered is used by Butterfly Conservation.
Over the 2 hours, we saw 13 species, possibly the most exciting being what was believed to be a Purple Hairstreak……sadly not close enough to get a photo!
Thank you to Tani Read for a really interesting walk, I’m certainly now more aware of the butterflies around me when I am out walking.
Gill Watson
Full List of butterflies we saw were:
Meadow Brown
Gatekeeper
Large White
Small White
Common Blue
Comma
Small Copper
Marbled White
Peacock
Red Admiral
Purple Hairstreak
Small/Essex Skipper (field identification is very difficult for these two species)
Day flying moths seen:
Six-Spot Burnet
Silvery
