Butterflies at Studland Common
Wednesday 23nd July
After all the sun we’ve had recently, it was touch and go as to whether this walk would go ahead – butterflies generally don’t come out in the rain. However we took the risk and 10 of us turned up to walk the Butterfly Transect on Studland common, lead by Tani Read and Helen Duckett. They were hoping to show us a rare, (to this venue) White Letter Hairstreak which had been seen a few days before.
The butterfly transect is a route that is followed every week during the summer months to record the species and number of butterflies during the year. This information is ultimately fed into the the Butterfly Conservation records.
We started the route through the orchard and then onto the meadow where we saw most species. After about an hour, light rain began to fall and the butterflies went into hiding.
We didn’t see the White Letter Hairstreak , but we did spot the following species before the rain came: Red Admiral, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Large White, Small/Essex Skipper (these are so difficult to tell apart), Speckled Wood, Holly Blue,
You can record butterflies in your garden or elsewhere as the Big Butterfly Count is currently taking place.
Many thanks to Tani and Helen who provided so much interesting information along the way.