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Dorset Butterfly Report for 2015

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Dorset Butterfly Report for 2015 Butterfly Conservation Dorset Branch Newsletter No 82 Dorset Butterfly Report for 2015 www.dorsetbutterflies.com 36 Counting butterflies Dorset Branch Who’s Who President Website From Nigel Spring, Dorset Branch Chair Brian Dicker* Lyn Pullen* Wincanton. 01963 32453 Winfrith Newburgh. 01305 Welcome to our 2015 Butterfly Report. We hope you 853946 enjoy the new super-colour format! Butterflies are [email protected] [email protected] such stunning colourful creatures that it seems logical that our publications should be in full colour Chair & Reserves Manager Newsletter too. Many other branches have already gone over to Nigel Spring* Jane Smith* Sherborne. 01935 814029 this format and with the recent huge changes in print Sherborne. 01963 23559 or 07981 776767 [email protected] technology, the cost of colour is very little more than that of black and [email protected] white. We would welcome members’ comments on this. Health & Safety As in previous years, the 2015 records show both gains and losses. Some Secretary, Garden Records & Keith Howland* of these are part of regular fluctuations but some of them are far more Wider Countryside Survey Pimperne. dramatic. It is wonderful to see how well the large gaudy species fared in Adrian Neil* [email protected] 2015 - species like the Brimstone and the Silver-washed and Dark Green Preston, Weymouth. Fritillaries. As in a Painted Lady year (we are still looking forward to the 01305 832937 Committee Member next one!), having large colourful butterflies easily visible in our [email protected] Richard Norman* Sturminster Newton. countryside is a very good way to generate interest among the public. 01258 472887 Treasurer [email protected] We can explain some of the fluctuations in numbers by linking them to the Georgie Laing* oscillations in the abundance of predators or parasitoids, as is the case Weymouth. 01305 766712 with Marsh Fritillaries, Holly Blues and others. Other ups and downs can [email protected] Meetings Arthur Bryant be matched to the variations in our unpredictable climate. We are very West Moors. 01202 892816 grateful to Judy Westgate for providing her meteorological data as usual, Membership & Branch [email protected] Liaison even if, sadly, the figures do not make for very happy reading! Several Mrs Robin George* months in 2015, important in the life-cycles of our more critical species, Conservation Gillingham. 01747 824215 Richard Belding were colder, wetter and had less sunshine than the 30 year average: not [email protected] good news. The drop in numbers of the Brown Argus may be due to the Dorchester. 01305 264868 [email protected] poor weather in early summer when the first brood females should have Records been laying eggs. Bill Shreeves* Shaftesbury. 01747 852587 Photo on back cover: Mullein Moth Much more worrying are the drastic changes that cannot be easily [email protected] caterpillar. Brian Arnold. explained. The continuing declines in Wood White and Small Pearl- bordered Fritillary do not seem to be explicable in terms of the lack of Butterfly Conservation. Company limited by guarantee, registered in England (2206468). suitable habitat. The Chalkhill Blue has crashed in numbers, particularly Registered Office: Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP. away from the coast in Dorset (and indeed in Wiltshire). It could be that the same climatic changes which are favouring Adonis Blues and Silver- Charity registered in England and Wales (1254937) and in Scotland (SCO 39268) 2 35 spotted Skippers are rendering the same downland 2010-14 Butterfly Records habitats less suitable for the Chalkhill Blues. And now it seems that the Small Copper has joined the list of species whose numbers are plummeting. The graph on page 10 shows that in three of the last four years of counts, the number of species showing declines exceeds the number showing gains. A very sobering picture! Small Copper. Charlie Steadman. Michael McCarthy in his book ‘The Moth Snowstorm’ refers to what he calls the ‘great thinning’, the loss of half the biodiversity of the UK in less than half a century, reflected in the reduction of moth numbers, the almost total disappearance of hayfields, the loss of swallows, martins and bats as a result of the crash in the abundance of dungflies and dung beetles since the introduction of avermectins for worming farm animals and horses, to name but a few. We are very fortunate to live in a very rural county, but much of Dorset is now effectively a wildlife desert, with fields of cereal, rape, maize for silage and intensive dairy pastures, all grown as monocultures with no room for wildflowers or the insects and other animals that rely on them. We are going to have to work very energetically both as individuals and through organisations like Butterfly Conservation to try to bring about changes in the management of the land around us which will lead to a reversal of these frightening trends. Finally, huge thanks to Bill Shreeves, Martin Raper and all their assistants who process the vast number of records that are sent in; also to Lyn Pullen for putting together this wonderfully comprehensive and attractive report; and last and most importantly, to all the ‘foot soldiers’ on the ground who devote hundreds of man-hours to recording butterflies: all your hard work enables us to produce this report and the records on which the future conservation of our butterflies can be based. 34 3 Counting butterflies Butterfly Recording Cycle ounting butterflies another likes to go out on ecords from Transect not yet very meaningful. We sounds very simple: go hunts for certain species. Walks and all the other have therefore included, C out and note down Secondly, how comparable are R schemes we have for overleaf, the map for the full how many you see. There are, all these figures from a multitude counting butterflies are pulled 2010-2014 recording period. however, two complicating of sources? There is no certain together every five years. As you can see, there are some aspects. answer, but, statistically, the We are part of the national “white holes”, where no Firstly, you need to encourage more records we get, the better organisation- Butterfly butterfly records were received, people to do the counting: the overall accuracy. However, Conservation- which undertakes and we are particularly keen that virtually all our records are from there is a method called transect this collation for the whole UK. these do not remain gaps in the unpaid volunteers. walking which calls for a certain next five years, so please visit place to be walked every week This means we record on a five- them if you can and send us the from April to September, under year cycle, and at the end of it, records. A few are inaccessible set rules, which gives us the best the slate is wiped clean and we for various reasons. data for comparing years. start collecting records all over Even how people like to send in again. We are now in the 2015- More detail can be seen on the their counts varies. Some like to 2019 cycle. website. type them into a computer, and We record butterflies in some prefer to stick to paper kilometre squares, and at the and leave the typing to someone end of each year we plot which Brimstone. Andrew Cooper else. butterflies have been seen in Then, what suits one person We have a number of counting which square, and to see where does not suit another: one needs scenarios and different ways to nothing has been recorded at all. to keep it simple and just jot send in the records, so there is As this report is about 2015 and down what they see while going something for everyone. You this was the start of the cycle, about their daily business, can see the full range in our the map showing where no another is housebound but can “Counting Dorset’s Butterflies” records have been reported is get out into their garden, and booklet, or on our website. Red Admirals. Lyn Pullen. 4 33 Transect Walking 2015: The number of results ransect walking The Wider Countryside Survey produces the most has its own importance, in that it T butterfly data, but there is a truly random survey (albeit are other sources, as shown in only done in July and August), the graph below. While transect whereas transect walks tend to results are scientifically good, be at butterfly hot-spots, and they are limited to certain there is probably a tendency for months, so our growing number these to also predominate on of records via the website, and the website. Please remember via national systems such as recording ‘ordinary’ butterflies is iRecord and Living Record are as important as noting the rare important for filling in the gaps. species. Hod Hill. Carole Drake. Number of butterflies counted by type of Dorset maintains over 60 you can have a list of what record transect walks; given they are butterflies have been seen in walked 26 times a year, that’s which sections of the walk Migrant Watch 385 potentially over 1,560 actual previously, so you have a good Living Record 5,329 Wider Countryside 7,353 walks! You can understand, start to sort out what you are iRecord 15,654 therefore, that we need more seeing. Take your camera and Casual Electronic forms 19,749 volunteers to help with transect photograph any species of which Big Butterfly Count 28,387 walking. You only have to do as you are uncertain, so you can Website 33,714 many walks in a year as you feel ask for help later.
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