This year there have been about 12 local volunteers and the project has been co-ordinated by John Nundy. If you would like to be involved in 2006 then contact him on 023 92599621 or speak to the countryside ranger.
Monitoring butterfly numbers by doing transects is organised across the country by Butterfly Conservation who produce recording forms and guide notes. Their address is PO Box 444,Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5YA.

E-mail address: info@butterfly-conservation.org    Website: www.butterfly-conservation.org

2006 has been a Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady year, they have been seen in good numbers at CDN, DPW, HDN and Blendworth fields. The summer immigrant Clouded Yellows often produce a second brood seen in August and September, it is very difficult to photograph the upperside of their wings but this year they have been obliging to pose with folded wings as seen in the 2 pictures below. Painted Ladies have been the commonest of the Nymphalid butterflies especially at Buddleia flowers. Large Whites and Common Blues have also been very plentiful, and amongst the 'browns' Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Speckled Woods and Ringlets have been seen in very large numbers during July and August.

The first eight pictures are from my 2006 gallery, mostly taken whilst doing butterfly transects.

The following photographs (click on thumbnail images to view gallery) are all taken in the Horndean area, many whilst walking the butterfly transects. The best three areas for seeing butterflies are Dell Piece West (DPW), Catherington Down (CDN) and the Wildlife garden (WLG)

Painted Lady HDN - 29 Jul 2006	Painted Lady WGN - 3 Aug 2006	Clouded Yellow CDN - 8 Aug 2006	Clouded Yellow DPW - 27 Aug 2006
Large White in WG - 3 Aug 2006	Common Blue HDN - 29 Jul 2006	Speckled Wood in WG - 9 Aug 2006	Ringlet butterflies mating HZC - 1 Jul 2006
Brown Argus HDN - 18 Jun 2006	Brimstone female on Sage Our garden - 9 Jun 2006	Peacock caterpillars Cath Down - 21 Jun 2006	Green-veined Whites WLG - Aug 1996
Large White caterpillars WLG - Sep 2001	Marbled White HDN - 28 Jun 2003	Clouded Yellow Blendworth - 17 Sep 2002	Painted Lady DPW - July 2002
Small Tortoiseshell Blendworth - Aug 2001	Small Tortoiseshell DPW - Sep 2005	Tortoiseshell caterpillars CDN - May 2003	Peacock Caterpillars Chalton - Sep 1992
Peacock on stone WLG - 1997	Comma on brambles WLG - 3 Jul 2005	Comma caterpillar WLG - Aug 2003	White Admiral on bramble Hazleton Farm - Aug 1996
Holly Blue WLG - Sep 1991	Brown Argus HDN - 18 Jun 2006	Small Heath HDN - 28 Jun 200	Meadow Brown HZC - 3 Jul 2005
Ringlet HZC - 3 Jul 2005	Speckled Wood WLG - Sep 2001	Small Skipper DPW - 23 Jun 2003	Large Skipper DPW - Jun 1999
Brimstone on sage WG - 9 Jun 2006	Small Copper CDN - 24 Sep 2005	Red Admiral Blendworth - 17 Oct 2005	Red Admiral on Elm Blendworth - 15 Oct 2006

Useful references
For identification I have found Pocket guide to the Butterflies of GB & Ireland by Richard Lewington the best but there are many good guides especially the Readers Digest Field Guide to the Butterflies and other Insects of Britain. If cost is not a problem then The Millenium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland is superb (O.U.P.2001). I still have a battered copy of the Butterflies of the British Isles by Richard South (Warne's Wayside and Woodland Series).

My interest in butterflies started in the late 1940's and I was very inspired when an aunt gave me for my 12th birthday the first of the New Naturalist publications Butterflies by E.B.Ford that had just been published (1945). I met the author that year on Tooting Bec Common - that's another story that you can read about on the Moth Page ! Two other books that inspired me, published a year later, were Butterfly Haunts by L.Hugh Newman and Butterfly Lives by S.Beaufoy the king of butterfly photographers in those days. He started me off on close-up photography, I have been chasing butterflies with a camera ever since!