Butterfly Counting

 

The photos above show my 2022 notebook for counting butterflies in our suburban Suffolk garden. Many people prefer to add their sightings straight on the mobile App. as they occur, but I prefer a pen. 

 

I list each butterfly at the front of my book (date, species, number seen, any special notes etc.) and add a tally-mark at the back. Every so often I upload my data on to the Garden Butterfly Survey run by Butterfly Conservation. The lists at the end of this post show my recordings for July 2022. 

 

It's good to be reminded that counting butterflies (or birds or stag beetles etc.) can make a difference. The current Butterfly Conservation eNews reminds us that ...

'The data you gather is vital in helping us understand the challenges 

facing our butterflies and moths and we are very grateful 

to all those citizen scientists who help us in this way'

 

and that ...

 

'much of what we know about the lives 

and requirements of these incredible insects 

has been discovered by amateur enthusiasts over the centuries.' 

The Grayling has been a new species in the garden, visiting twice so far this August. The photo below shows how well it blends in with our White Buddleia once the flowers are past their prime.

 

 

It seems to be a good year for this species in our wider area; we have  David has recorded over 100 in various locations (with my help). The collage below shows the Grayling up in the pine trees, perching on silver birch bark, resting in sandy tracks, pausing in the dry grass ... and alighting on our sleeves.

 

And here is my garden butterfly list for July 2022, starting with sightings seen most recently and working backwards ... We record each butterfly or cluster in our (wild) garden when we see them, but we often make a point of turning coffee and lunch times into counting sessions.

 

 

 

Sadly we haven't seen any Hairstreak butterflies in the garden this year (so far), despite the fact that we have seen several Green Hairstreaks elsewhere in the county.

Grayling and other Insects on Sutton Heath (near Sutton Hoo)

Grayling, Sutton Heath, this afternoon

We have been exploring what for us is a new corner of Suffolk this weekend. We know the Sutton Hoo site pretty well, but had never discovered the lie of the land at nearby Sutton Heath ... until yesterday. We liked what we found so much that we returned this afternoon and were treated to a remarkable aerial display by Grayling butterflies. 

The Grayling is not a butterfly we see very often at all; and in this year of C-19, I had begun to think that, along with other wild things such as bluebells, tadpoles and demoiselles, it was going to be just one more species that would have to wait for a future year. How wrong I was. But I had almost forgotten just how camouflaged these Graylings can be when they are not on the wing against a blue sky.

When you visit a new place, I always find it helpful when there is a ready made guide. This information board may have been a bit faded, but it told us about Nightjars, Adders and about the different kinds of heather that one might encounter on this site in the Suffolk Sandlings.

We followed the marked-out trail and were soon heading into the forest, where we saw conifers, rowan, oak trees, chestnut, silver birch and holly.

After a short time we found ourselves in dappled sunlight, and began to wonder if the forest was about to give way.

Having seen an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar near our home on Friday, we checked the Rosebay Willowherb carefully, but failed to see this distinctive larva on the heath.

We came across a Buddleia, presumably a self-seeded one, in a clearing with benches, and there beside it was this Red Admiral.

This grasshopper was spotted in the same place, hopping about on these dead oak leaves.

The butterfly in the photo below is a Small Heath, a species we see not infrequently in this part of the world. It is very small.

I mentioned above that Rowan was one of the species of tree we noticed.

The view below gives an impression of this mixed habitat, with heather giving way to bracken, which in turn gives way to more heather and bracken before you reach a stand of silver birch. There is also a large conifer, and what looks like an oak in the foreground.

These may not be the Scottish moors, but we can't really complain, can we?

We were keeping a sharp eye out for more Grayling butterflies when we noticed this sand wasp, possibly the Red-banded Sand Wasp. We see these from time to time, but had not seen one for ages.

I'm not quite sure what it was doing on this bit of dead vegetation...

I particularly like the way in which the Grayling in the photo below barely shows up beside the pine cone. In a recent post I featured the Spider Wasp, with its unmissable yellow stripes. How strange that that particular insect should protect itself by mimicking a very visible wasp while this butterfly should use camouflage. 

Look for the legs in the photo below...

The undergrowth here on the sandy heath is made up of dead bracken, old acorns, bits of bark and old stalks.

In total contrast, this tiny caterpillar could hardly be missed! Is it a species of (?pine) sawfly?

We noticed two snails (or shells) in close proximity to one another.

It was a joy to watch the butterflies in a little glade. We had not seen Small Coppers (below) for some weeks.

This is certainly a place we are glad to have found. And it feels good to add the Grayling to my list of butterflies seen in this strange year.