Posted in Wildlife sightings on November 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Just out of interest, I compared the transect results between this year, 2023, and four years ago in 2019. Some interesting comparisons. Ringlet seems to have had a poor year this year, while Brimstone numbers were much better. However, considering how many variables there are, they don’t reflect a serious decline over the last few years?
Posted in Wildlife sightings on November 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »
What kind of year did we have for butterflies this year? The following is the raw data from the 26 weeks of weekly counts along a prescribed route. That means, although there are a lot of variables, it isn’t unreasonable to compare year on year. So this is the count from this year, a total of 24 species. Comparisons with previous years will take a bit more analysis. Totals and pie-chart are thanks to the efforts of Fred Giles who has done so much work promoting butterfly counts in Somerset over the last few years.
Species Count
Meadow Brown 597
Gatekeeper 285
Brimstone 201
Brown Argus 136
Speckled Wood 133
Common Blue 95
Small White 50
Large White 38
Red Admiral 36
Silver-washed Fritillary 34
Marbled White 28
Holly Blue 27
Ringlet 23
Peacock 20
Small Skipper 18
Comma 17
Large Skipper 9
Green-veined White 7
Small Tortoiseshell 2
Dark Green Fritillary 2
Small Copper 1
Purple Hairstreak 1
Painted Lady 1
Wall 1
TOTAL 1762
Walton Common SSSI - An Avon Wildlife Trust Reserve 