Today I joined a team of volunteers to help start butterfly monitoring at Mottey Meadows NNR near Wheaton Aston. This fantastic wetland site is best known for its flora including a colony of snake's head fritillaries which are considered to be the most northerly wild population in the UK.
Find out more about the reserve here - http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designations/nnr/1006106.aspx
The butterfly monitoring is part of Natural England's long term monitoring of selected NNRs looking at the impacts of management and a changing climate. The method used for butterflies follows that of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) set up by Butterfly Conservation. Its a method I use with volunteers to carry out butterfly surveys at the Trust's Highgate Common and Loynton Moss. In simple terms you follow a transect which is split into sections, and for each section you count the number of butterflies seen with a set distance of where you're walking.
Plenty of orange-tips were on the wing along with many green-veined white and a few peacocks. Also great to hear were 3 singing lesser whitethroats, a cuckoo and a pair of curlew. Obviously the snake's head fritillaries stole the show, and the same afternoon at least 40 people joined the Natural England warden for a walk to see these great plants. Latest counts are of 250+ flower heads this year.
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