Earthworks last Saturday saw us focusing on the insect world, namely butterflies.
Butterfly numbers are in decline and year on year there numbers seem to drop. Butterfly Conservation hold a Big Butterfly Count every July to get a wider picture of butterfly numbers. It is very easy to follow and you can count from your garden or local park.
Fun facts about butterflies:
Butterflies are pollinators and are vital for flora and food production.Each butterfly has its own specific food which caterpillars will only eat until they are ready to transform.When in their chrysalis caterpillars will completely dissolve and out of that primordial caterpillar soup the butterfly will emerge.The way to tell apart butterflies from moths is to look a their antennae. Butterflies have bulbus bits at the end.
For our session last week, we based ourselves in a different part of the woods, due to building work happening next to our usual site. We were just over the road but this woodland seemed to offer a different perspective on the world and what a woodland can offer. There is a greater diversity of tree species such as sweet chestnut and beach some of which are enormous. It was cool and shady, a welcome break from the heat.
We spent the first hour cutting back some vegetation and scoping out the area for suitable tree climbing trees and hammock spots. Venturing further into the woods for an explore and we saw a buzzard flying over head, fending off crows from attacking its nest which we were also able to see way up high in the trees.
We went out further into the sunnier spots to look for butterflies. Taleblazers has recently got a couple of sweep nets and magnifying pots with some funding we have been awarded. A sweep net is more tunnel like then a regular net that you might use in ponds. It is relatively easy to ‘sweep’ a butterfly into it and then to fold over to trap the butterfly inside. Once the butterfly is trapped you want to calmly and quickly get the butterfly into a pot, to take a photo and identify before releasing the butterfly back into the environment, unharmed. We managed to catch a couple which was very exciting!
The Butterflies we successfully identified were a Small Heath, ‘Monarch and Small White. We were also able to identify a speckled Wood and Large White as well. These will be uploaded to the national databases and our project list on Irecord.
Another productive morning in the woods with community.
