www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

For those of you who are interested, here is a link to the main results from this year's Big Butterfly Count.

It's not a scientific exercise, but nonetheless it does provide useful data.

Hedge Browns coming first is a surprise, but I was astonished to see Holly Blues record a 5% decrease. Admittedly, these were summer brood individuals, but I found this species to be commoner than normal throughout 2017 (and particularly so in Spring).

A 90% increase in Commas sighted is also encouraging, although this may be followed by relative scarcity going forward.

Here's the information:

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/2017ma ... X6,K3NY2,1

David M wrote:...

Hedge Browns coming first is a surprise, ...

No surprise for me, combining my two transects and comparing them to last year I had somewhere in the region of a 600% increase. Only Speckled Wood pipped them to the post but then they have a VERY long flight period!

Maybe it's just that I missed out on the early part of the Hedge Brown flight period, Bugboy, since I only returned from the south of France in mid-July. There then followed an abnormally unseasonal and prolonged period of poor weather (in south Wales at least), meaning that I saw far fewer of this species than I normally do.