www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I have tried searching in the "Sightings" forum for Black Hairstreak. If I use both words, the search engine ignores "Hairstreak" and the only hits contain the word "black". If I search just "Hairstreak", I get a message saying : The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: hairstreak. I also tried an advanced search using Black+Hairstreak but without success. Am I doing something wrong?

Trik

Hi Trik,

I've changed the board search settings and regenerated the indices. You should see much better results now. In fact, the results look so much better that I can see me using this myself more often!

Cheers,

- Pete

I tried searching for "Wisley" earlier and only got one result. Now there are 276 returns

Indeed! I've removed the limit on common words altogether and, although the search index is now massive (the index is taking up 370MB of space, with 3,941,156 index entries in total), it's still performing ok!

Also - this is the first time there's been a reindex ever - which means literally years worth of information (78,000 posts) now more accessible than ever

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks, Pete - works a treat now. I shall bookmark the Sightings forum so that when the Black HS season comes around again, I can hopefully keep up-to-date.

Incidentally, I had a look at UK Butterflies` Twitter page back to June/July last year, but didn`t find any entries for this butterfly, which was disappointing - although I do understand people keeping quiet in case sites get invaded by hordes of folk and their cameras, including me!

Trik

Trik wrote:Incidentally, I had a look at UK Butterflies` Twitter page back to June/July last year, but didn`t find any entries for this butterfly, which was disappointing - although I do understand people keeping quiet in case sites get invaded by hordes of folk and their cameras, including me!

Probably an oversight on my part to mention any first sighting. But they were definitely discussed on the forums - with some folk visiting the M40 compensation area as I recall.

Cheers,

- Pete

I found sightings reports in the July 2013 thread of the "Sightings" board (using the improved Search facility ), and have made a note of the various sites mentioned, although "the M40 compensation area" is a bit mysterious. Does it have another name for an OS map search, please?

I think all the Hairstreaks are charming little butterflies and I can never resist taking photos of them. The Black is the last of the UK ones to add to our album and it would be nice to complete the set, so here`s hoping for a good crop of them this year!

Many thanks
Trik

Trik wrote:"the M40 compensation area" is a bit mysterious. Does it have another name for an OS map search, please?

Just search for "M40 compensation area"

Seriously - there's a post with a link to a map in the results.

Cheers,

- Pete

I`ve searched and searched, but cannot find the map you mentioned, Pete, and although the Distribution map on the species page gives approximate areas, we could/would probably end up in entirely the wrong place(s) as I suspect the colonies are restricted to very small sites. Still, maybe if I ask on the Sightings board in due course someone will be kind enough to give us more precise directions - in a PM if they prefer.

Thanks
Trik

No worries.

Search for M40 Compensation Area: search.php?keywords=M40+compensation+area

6th item in results: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6928&p=72807&hilit= ... rea#p72807

Giving this map and grid ref: http://www.ukbms.org/SiteFactsheet.aspx?siteId=1315

With additional notes on access in this post: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4065&p=72680&hilit ... rea#p72680

Cheers,

- Pete

Thank you very much for the links, Pete. I didn`t think to use the + symbol in my search...
I hope we can do as well as Sussex Kipper did last year.

Regards
Trik

Trik wrote:Thank you very much for the links, Pete. I didn`t think to use the + symbol in my search...

I think it does that automatically. I didn't try anything fancy

Cheers,

- Pete