In 2007, annual monitoring of the nature reserve’s butterflies was set up. This is showing interesting results and all data are fed into a national database to build up a picture of large-scale trends. The surveys are carried out weekly between April and September and I will struggle to find the time to complete all of these this year. Therefore, I’m looking for a keen individual or two to help out perhaps once every 2-3 weeks on average.
I usually allow a couple of hours to complete the butterfly transect (including time to return to the car park) but time varies depending on the number of flutterbies encountered (this can vary from a handful to, once, over 1,000!). All butterflies within 10 metres of the route are recorded. The majority of species are easily identified with a bit of practice and I would provide all necessary training.
One major difficulty (or perhaps a very good thing) is that the surveys need to take place
on a nice day! And ideally between 10am and 2pm (although there is flexibility here).
You don’t need to have done anything like this before and it’d be a great way to learn more about these animals.
So, if you think you could help out then, or you want to know a bit more, I’d love to hear from you! Click here to drop me an email.