Butterfly Conservation Dorset Branch

The significance of 2004 is that it is leading up to 2005 and the publication of the 5 year update of the km square map to the Millennium Atlas. Bill has reported on this elsewhere, and without doubt this has taxed the Branch human resources considerably. On the face of it, Butterfly Conservation and the Dorset Branch membership is going from strength to strength. Membership is increasing and the Branch now has 480 members. In fact, our Branch has the highest membership/county population in the Society. Of these some 350 live within Dorset and so would expect to contribute actively to the task of recording within the county. But the catch is the age profile of the Branch, and like the colour of my hair it is a gray prospect. We are not the only organization with this problem. While it is true that passive membership, through the subscription, is very important, for it is by virtue of this cash input that Reserves and the professional expertise of the Lulworth office is funded, so too is our work on the ground. The contributions of my age group are many – we are retired so have nothing else to do, and through a lifetime of experience we have a diversity of skills to apply. The younger generation faces enormous pressures, either to gain professional qualifications, to stabilize a life style or to tend to the needs of a young family and dependents. No wonder they find it difficult to locate much time for butterflies and moths. That was my experience in those days, and after all, butterflies and moths must come after work and family.

At the risk of repeating myself, in common with the habitats of our beloved butterflies and moths, we must pay attention to succession. I am flattered that you say what a good job I do (not to say that I am not subject to justified criticism), but I am beginning to feel my age – 70 next year. I feel that, while I intend to continue to support the Branch, another could do the job better and bring a fresh approach. I am willing to stand for Chairman for another year – but that’s it. When I look at the magazines of other branches, I know how fortunate we are in Dorset to see that we have a full committee and a committee of contributors with diverse skills. Their support of Edward and me is fantastic and reliable, and their leadership of the members inspirational.

As you will have read in your magazine we have a new secretary here in Jane Smith. Tony Long did an excellent job taking over from Sue, and has with Joan brought a valuable contribution to the Branch through their knowledge of birds and contacts with the RSPB. Jane has considerable experience and we are confident that she will bring a fresh outlook to the committee. Another name that we will be asking you to confirm later is that of our special speaker this afternoon, Richard Belding. Richard was co-opted onto the Committee during the year and has agreed to serve as the Branch’s Conservation Officer.

So what are the ups and downs of this year’s Branch activities? The details are in the Branch Officers’ reports, but I will mention some. The disappointments come from attendance at Work Parties and the Field Trips. Maybe the answer to “why?” is in the age profile of the Branch. Please tell us. The habitat at Broadcroft is deteriorating, but the major work seems to have been a success, and more is required. And the good news is that there is still a lot going on, the Transect Recording, BAP surveys, moth-recording is now an established Branch activity, there is more contact with the public at Open Days and the area surveys, and yes, you are at the AGM.

Finally I would just like to mention some brief things about the work in progress. The Butterfly Conservation Council has asked us if we would be prepared to host the National AGM next year, and have agreed to do so. Nothing is fixed yet, but we are looking at holding it at the University next autumn, and a Committee of 6 will lead the arrangements and the liaison with the Lulworth Office. So far this committee comprises, Paul Butter, Anna Barwick, Sue Rawles and Brian Weeks with myself as a part-time member. On the Reserve front, it is understood that Hanson is selling their Portland holdings, and appear to want to sell to a single buyer. So we are awaiting the opportunity to find out more. In addition, Lulworth Office is discussing purchase with the owners of Alner’s Gorse, a wild bit of the Blackmoor Vale that is also part of the Lydlinch, Rooksmoor, and Deadmoor Marsh Fritillary metapopulation. I attended a meeting with the owners at which English Nature also expressed their enthusiastic support of the discussions. Roger Smith and his team are doing well with FWAG and the Blackthorn Hedgerow initiative, the Transect Walk Computer Records problem is slowly unraveling and we hope to see all these WIP come to fruition in the next 12 months.

In the words of Bob the Builder, “Can we do it?” Yes we can (but we need everyone’s active support).

Brian Dicker, 25.10.04 Chairman’s report 2004.doc

The year has been spent chasing historical paper data and inputting it into two programmes LEVANA and TRANSECT WALKER. The latter is for regularly walked transects and the former more casual sightings. As a new comer I am very impressed by the conscientious hardwork of inputters and the willingness to meet any impossible deadline I set them! Also David Jeffers has given invaluable advice and guidance to the Branch to help organise our data and records effectively. It has been a challenging year with many thousands of sighting inputted, with more to come in the next few weeks. I feel the situation now is better than 12 months ago, but there is still progress to be made before we can be satisfied that our records are complete and effectively digitised.

A report like this must finish with many thanks to all the inputters (and their partners!), David Jeffers and to our Commander of butterfly data, Bill Shreeves.

Stephen Brown

October 2004

The Display Stall operates to inform and encourage the public to become more butterfly and moth aware and offers ideas and information about ways we can help attract more wildlife into our gardens. It also tells of our work to create and maintain suitable habitats and encourages new membership. We run activities for children and try to have some live moths and caterpillars to show. We meet people who want help to record what they see in their gardens or elsewhere and some who would like us to go to talk to groups and societies.

Thanks to our loyal team of helpers we have attended 15 venues this year, several of which have been 2, 3 or 7-day events. We opened the year with a weeks’ stand at Stewarts garden centres in Wimborne and Christchurch in stormy April. Then we went to Lulworth Castle for a weekend of chilly weather! We took the stall to Motcombe and Stoborough First School, to Turbury and Slop Bog and supported the Yetminster Recording Day. Our day for Kinson Common Open Day was wet but we managed to appear at two venues on that day as the Sticky Wicket date coincided. Then we were off to Avon Heath Wildlife Workshop and Abbotsbury’s Swan Fayre where we shared the marquee with falcons and bees. We squeezed into the Beekeepers marquee again for the Dorchester Show and finished the year at the Avon Heathland Festival – a busy year.

Kathy and Richard Clarke kindly organised the Sales Stall to many events, which included Sticky Wicket and Cobblers Cottage and covered the Upton Park Children's Day and the Kingston Maurward Open Day as well as the Verwood lecture – thank you to both of you.

And a big thank you to all the members of the team, to Brian Weeks, Peggy Taylor, Joan Durran and Tony Long, to Paul Butter and Brian and Sylvia Dicker, to Bobby Knowles and Bridgit Young and to Lyn and Chris Pullen and Lawrie. Without you the Display Stall just wouldn’t happen!

Please do join us next year – it’s not difficult and indeed it is very worthwhile and great fun. Come and talk to me or give me a ring – I’d love to hear from you.

Bridget de Whalley

October 2004

A review of our events listings for the last 12 months shows that this has been the branch’s busiest year to date. During the winter we organised 15 conservation work days of our own as well as promoting and helping other organisations with theirs. Other winter activities included the important day devoted to the search for Brown Hairstreak eggs at Deadmoor and Rooksmoor in December. We were luckily blessed with fine weather for this and a good number of eggs were found.

This summer the branch has been involved in over 40 events, a record number for us boosted by 15 moth trapping events. Outside activities this year were confined exclusively to Dorset, with the exception of the trips to Thurlbear and Martin Down in May and in late June to Collard Down to see the re-introduced population of Large Blue. This joint event with West Country branch attracted members from many parts of the country. Although weather conditions were not ideal, a small number of adults were seen including an ovipositing female. The photographers went home happy.

In general, it has to be said that attendance at many events has not been good, even though the weather has been favourable with only a handful of events being lost. I feel disappointed for the leaders who have given their time to lead the walks. The best attended events turned out to be those such at Badbury Rings and Holt Heath held jointly with other organisations, and walks advertised in the national events programme attracting outside members to see key species. Any feedback from members attending today as to what might attract them to more outside meetings will be appreciated. We are always on the lookout look for new venues and this year Tony Long led a first walk for us at Stoborough Heath which was well attended. Ultimately, however, there is a finite number of sites that can offer members a range of the key species.

In an initiative to attract new recorders, Bill Shreeves ran 2 identification workshops in March followed by local field visits in May. These were both well attended and will hopefully have inspired some new recorders.

Kilometre Square recording walks were arranged on 5 days. With one exception ,turnout at these was generally poor. We really would like to see more members attending these events. They can be very enjoyable walks and very rewarding to see your records filling the blank squares on the map. Anyone not confident on identification to go out on their own will always be paired up with an ‘expert’, so it is a good way to learn as well. More will be planned next year, so please come along.

In closing, I would like to thank the good people who have offered their services to lead field meetings and work parties, to give talks and to support our sales and display stalls at various locations. Without their efforts, our comprehensive events calendars could not happen and I would like to offer them my gratitude on behalf of the members.

Arthur Bryant

There has been a fantastic amount of Moth activity by Branch members this year with 24 Field Events of which either Gordon or myself ran 19, three being lead by Phil Sterling and two by the RSPB team at Radipole Lake. Apart from these open events which were joint BC and DMG or RSPB outings, there has been a great deal of other recording by Branch members with every week during the season having some part of the county visited. I think one of the big steps forward this year has been the inclusion of moths on the Transect Walkers sheets. Some good dayflying moth records have been made on these walks, we have had the lovely Pryrales, Pyrausta nigrata, despicata, purpuralis and aurata from Fontmell Down as well as larvae of the Plume moth Pterophorus galactodactyla which leaves characteristic bullet holes in the leaves of Burdock. These were also recorded from Stubhampton Bottom. Stubhampton transect walks also came up with records of Mother Shipton, Burnet Companion and the Forester as well as Six Spot Burnets. Drab Looper was seen in good numbers again here this year with a max of 50 on one afternoon, but unfortunately things are not so good for the other BAP species at this site, namely the Argent and Sable. None were seen this year despite a number of searches and it looks likely that we have lost the moth from Stubhampton. I hope that as more walkers get to use the dayflying moth illustrated sheet we will get more records next year.

There were good contacts with National Trust who asked me to do the moth half of a moth and bat evening at Compton Down. This was well attended by about 30 members of the public who were fascinated by the variety of moths attracted to an illuminated sheet as well as witnessing bat-moth interactions.

I also strayed out of county to run a moth event for Wiltshire FWAG as part of their Environmental Stewardship Award at a farm near Tisbury. It was an eye opener to see how keen so many farmers were to know more about the moths that were seen on the night.

I will now give the highlights from the various site visits mentioned earlier, starting with Fontmell Down. The most important Priority Action Plan species here is Barred Toothstripe, and it is pleasing to report that four were seen this year in April as a result of torchlight-searching of Wild Privet clumps. The moth seemed to be restricted to low growth in fairly open positions rather than tall, thickets. Several Mottled Greys were also seen during these searches.

A trip to Clifton Woods near Yeovil produced new records of Mere Wainscot, Marsh Oblique barred, Chevron, and the RDB Pyrale Phlyctaenia stachydalis.

Smetherd Farm at Deadmoor produced Marbled Pug, Blossom Underwings, and both Tawny and Pale Pinions, again early in the year in April.

Several trips to part of the Wimborne St Giles Estate instigated by Arthur Bryant have identified this as a key area for ancient woodland species. Pale Oak Beauty, Great Prominents, Little Thorn, Mocha, Four dotted Footman, Ochreous Pug, Festoon, Brown-tail, Gold Swift, Pine Hawkmoth and most importantly of all the third Dorset site for Poplar Lutestring.

Gordon Hopkins has been focussing on Fifehead Magdalen woods and we have had a fair few mud-splattered evenings trudging through the clay to get moth records from this site where BC volunteers have been engaged in management work for many years. The key species here is the Light Orange Underwing which flies by day during April and is restricted by the limited distribution of the foodplant, Aspen. Some other good species here included the Seraphim, also on Aspen, Blotched Emerald and Orange Footman.

Stubhampton mercury vapour light trapping added to the already impressive list of notable species by turning up Valerian Pug, Satyr Pug, Orange Footman, Satin beauty, Maidens Blush and Clay Triple-lines.

We also had a series of trips to Clive Farrell’s establishment at Ryewater Nursery south of Sherborne. Clive has been actively restoring the land here to as near as possible a pre-war condition by creating unimproved pasture, wetlands and coppiced woodland. Numbers of moths here have been exceptional except for National Moth Night on 22^nd May, which, as many will bitterly remember barely escaped sub-zero temperatures. Eleven MV traps only managed to produce 28 common species! What a contrast to the night of 3^rd June a mere week later, when we had 123 species and swarms of moths. The best of these were Red-necked Footman, Little Thorn, Lunar Thorn, Mocha, Alder, Treble Brown Spot and Lunar Spotted Pinion.

Other trips that produced good records were Powerstock Common where on a butterfly walk we recorded Narrow Bordered Bee Hawk, Small Yellow Underwing and a number of Scarlet Tiger moth larvae.

Lawrie de Whalley has done some excellent moth-ing at our very own reserve at Broadcroft Quarry. This is obviously an excellent moth site with a number of Notable and BAP species. This year records were made for the Fern, Bordered Sallow, Annulet, Four Spotted, Chalk Carpet and the micro Oncocera semirubella.

I would also like to make mention of the number of moth records coming in from the website and ably posted up by Anna Barwick. Many of these referred to migrant Hummingbird Hawkmoths, a species I failed to see this year. Small Yellow Underwing, and Jersey Tigers also had web generated records.

On the migrant front I missed the most exceptional migrant event for 30 years when in February there was an influx of Levant Blackneck providing the first ever Dorset records. The Portland Bird Observatory recorded many exceptional migrants this year including another new to Britain, Eublema purpurina, but none reached any distance inland and the general level of migration was low. The other big migrant event were 2 records on the mainland of the Jersey Mocha, and it will be interesting to see if this new arrival to our shores will establish itself in south Dorset. My only migrants of interest at were White-line Dart and Latticed Heath which turned up in September at my home trap. Other highlights from my own trap at Motcombe this year included Red Sword Grass, Pale Brindled Beauty, Light Feathered Rustic, Maidens Blush, Double Lobed, Blackneck, Lilac beauty, and Broom moth.

Thanks go to all the stalwart moth-ers who have braved rain, mud and in one case irascible Hornets to make 2004 such a good year for moth recording in the county: Gordon Hopkins, Lawrie de Whalley, Arthur Bryant, Steve Barret, Peter Davey, Jack Astley.

Paul Butter

October 2004

1. The Perryfields limestone grassland and herbs were threatened by serious encroachment of scrub. The winter programme of 3 branch volunteer work parties and a day of Dorset Countryside volunteers would not have made enough impact on the problem and the addition 5 days of contractor effort (5 machine days) more than doubled the area cleared. Cotoneaster removal has made good progress. This reserve does not attract any grants and a total of £500 Branch funds were spent in 2003/4 on conservation.

Chalkhill Blue breed in small numbers and Small Blues visit the Reserve.

2. Broadcroft Quarry. The areas scraped 2 years ago to provide successional habitat including bare ground have produced good re-growth of Birds-foot Trefoil for Silver-studded Blue larva and some Kidney Vetch for Small Blue larva. The cost of this project was covered by an AGSL grant from English Nature. Unwanted bramble regrowth will require more cutting.

Expenditure during 2003/4 was c£25.

High numbers of Small Blue were seen this summer in 2 broods. Good numbers of Silver-studded Blue were seen.

Scrub clearance carried out in 2002/3 has resulted in an increase in the area of grass and larval foodplants for Lepidoptera.

3. Broadcroft Winter plans 2004/5. Clematis needs to be removed from the main Silver-studded Blue colony area as a priority. Also some bramble and cotoneaster clearance is required. The Broadcroft management committee meeting on site in July2004 assessed the need as 10 days contractor work in addition to 3 volunteer work parties and a request for Dorset Countryside Volunteers. This is the minimum amount we feel should be done this year.

Signs for the 2 Reserve entrances are needed, a volunteer for this task is sought.

4. Broadcroft Finance. English Nature made a grant of £270 p.a. for Broadcroft under the Reserves Enhancement Scheme. We have received this for 7 years (£1890) and to date only spent £1050 of this on Broadcroft. Agreement to spend the balance of this grant (£840) plus £160 of Branch funds to pay for work in this financial year is sought if this report is adopted.

My own estimate of land maintenance costs at Broadcroft in the future is £600 p.a. provided we have some continuing volunteer work parties.

It should be noted that when there was no manager or local committee in 1999-2000 very little work was done and only £25 was spent.

5. Sale of Hanson (Kingston Minerals) land on Portland. Enquires are being made to see if the land with conservation interest might be offered separately from the Hanson business which we understand is for sale. Dorset County Council are aware of this as are BC National Office. The Dorset Branch Lease on Broadcroft has 9 years to run until 2013 and we have a legal obligation to maintain the sites’ SSSI for that period whoever owns the Freehold.

6. Surveys. Butterfly Transects continue to be walked but there is an urgent need for new walkers next season. Moth traps were run by the committee and a local resident on 4 occasions at Broadcroft. 66 macro moths and 10 micro moths were recorded. Verification of Ken Dolbear’s digital pictures has been carried out by Peter Davey and confirms Four-spotted (Nationally Scarce A) and Chalk Carpet (Nationally Scarce B) as present. The numbers of these indicate the species breeding on the Reserve.

Botanical monitoring of the scraped areas and the 1997 recapped zone has been continued.

Ant surveys were conducted and confirmed that they were excluded by vegetation above about 7cm.

The photographic fixed point survey started in 1992 is being continued in digital and disc storage by Ken Dolbear. Some of the pictures will be on display at the AGM.

7.Open day. Very wet. 2 local residents came and offered help including finding, off the reserve, over 50 roosting Silver-studded Blues and some Small Blue larva.

8. Wider Portland issues. Conservation work beneficial to Lepidoptera is being considered by Government Agencies on sites identified by Paul Green in his 2004 report. These are mainly outside our Reserves but would be highly beneficial at metapopulation level. Attendance at the Portland Conservation Forum has enabled butterfly habitats to raised and considered across Portland.

9. Thanks are due to Bernard Franklin for running all the work parties, Paul and Anne Green for co-ordinating the Transect walks and the Portland Reserves Management Committee.

Lawrie de Whalley.

Portland Reserves Manager

October 2004

Firstly, I must apologise for not being here today.

I have been looking forward to today for some time as I knew that I would be able to attend, but it is my Mother’s 80^th birthday today and that has taken priority! Also, another apology, as I have not been able to do much for the branch this year.

Since February I have been in and out of hospital, including surgery twice, but thankfully, this has ended now.

I do feel however that if there is anyone who would like to take this post on then they should be able to do so.

I am unable to attend committee meetings also, and this does not help.

Geoff Hobson

October 2004

The year for the Transect Walk Co-ordinator has been dominated by the drive to get our Transect Walks all entered into Butterfly Conservation’s Transect Walker Database. This is a vital project because it is essential that the valuable data from the walks is used nationally & not just for particular sites within Dorset. With the walk data for the whole country held on the one database it will play a useful part in contributing evidence on issues like global warming & the value of schemes like Countryside Stewardship. Our problem in Dorset is that we have data going back to the 1980s, which was never entered on any computer scheme, data on our own Dorset database set up by Bernard Franklin, which now needs to be converted into Transect Walker, & data on various other computer systems which are not readily compatible. An added problem is that it is only possible for one site to be entered at a time; so, for example, if one data inputter dealt with old Duncliffe records of the 1980s, another worked away on converting the 1990s records from the ‘old’ Dorset database & a third entered the most recent records from 2000, their results could only be merged to make the one definitive Duncliffe database with great difficulty. Inevitably ‘bottle necks’ have resulted & have been made worse by problems in finding the oldest paper data for some of the walks. So alas despite a lot of hard work put in by all concerned I am not able yet to report that the task has been fully completed.

Meanwhile the work of walking & recording in the present has continued. In 2003, 53 full sets of walk data were collected including new walks at Lankham Bottom (the new Butterfly Conservation Reserve in Dorset) & Hog Cliff Southfield (English Nature NNR). As was predicted in my last report, the Adonis Blue emerged as the walk butterfly of the year 2003 with over 70% of the 14 sites, which record the species, showing large increases on their average counts & on the previous year, 2002. At the other end of the scale was the Purple Hairstreak with around 60% of the 11 sites, which regularly record it, well down on 2002 & their annual average counts. Walk results for 2004, are just starting to trickle in; a hot tip for those who are putting bets on this year’s best performing butterfly might be the Small Blue, which has reached unusually high counts & even a second brood in North Dorset. The poorest performers look to be among those usually reliable ‘garden’ butterflies the Peacock & Small Tortoiseshell but we must wait for the full picture to emerge.

With my Recording Officer’s hat on I can report that in 2003 our hard working ‘square bashers’ covered 790 of Dorset’s km squares; this was the best annual coverage since the Supplementary Millennium Project began back in 2000. However the total coverage between 2000-03 still stands only at 1,452 km squares, over 900 less than for the original Millennium Project of 1995-99. How many of those gap squares will have been visited before the end of the project? We have done our best this year by arranging recorder meetings at Thorncombe, Yetminster, Tarrant Monkton, Verwood & the Army Ranges (all areas where there were ‘empty’ blocks of squares) but while a good number of butterflies & squares were recorded, attendances were disappointingly poor. The most successful event was at Yetminster where the local ramblers helped to guide us around the local footpaths & a total of 22 species of butterflies were recorded in 44 km squares. At this moment with the end of the main season approaching more records are reaching me – even it must be admitted, some from 2000 & back in the 1990s! There is inevitably a long interval between the time at which the records reach me for verification, & the time they complete the process of being entered into the computer & those entries being finally validated, so please don’t permit as long an interval to elapse before clearing out record files. Get any data in by, at the latest, the start of December. Only in this way can we meet the national deadline of late February 2005. I should also take this opportunity to apologise for the loss of some, mainly year 2000, records, which went missing between the point at which I verified them & their data entry. Some, but not all, I have been able to reconstitute from the rough notes I keep before passing them on for data entry. The most notable recorded event in 2004 would appear to have been the unprecedented Painted Lady migration in February, which, alas, does not seem from the evidence accumulated so far, to have led to a particularly good later Painted Lady season. Reports have also come in of both Swallowtails & Scarce Swallowtails arriving in Purbeck, the latter becoming the first of its species to grace a Dorset [& probably British] Transect Walk!

With my third, Regional Action Plan, hat on, I must report another successful year in 2003. The surveyors taking part in our 5 year plan had by the end of the season visited 753 species sites for the priority butterflies at least once, including 75 ‘new’ squares not visited in the 1995-99 Millennium Survey. Already I can report more new squares for 2004 especially for Dingy Skipper, Small & Silver Studded Blue. I must thank especially our two Regional Co-ordinators, John Spencer & John Messer, who retired at the end of the 2003 season after more or less completing the 5 year plan for the West Dorset Coast in 3 years. We welcome Chris Paul as the new West Dorset Coast RAP Co-ordinator.

As usual the four regional meetings (Kingcombe, Wareham, Motcombe for Shaftesbury & Wimborne) were held for recorders & have now been expanded beyond Butterfly walking to include all types of recording & also moths. Thanks to the work of Keith Powrie the coloured results charts for Dorset Butterfly Walks was ready for distribution at the meetings & were sent to site owners/managers. This year we made a big effort to recruit & train more butterfly recorders by putting on free indoor workshops at Wimborne & Powerstock and following them up with outdoor field days at Cashmoor & Powerstock. Altogether 30 people came to the workshops & field days, the latter of which were fortunately graced by excellent weather. We plan to arrange more workshops for 2005, probably at different locations & adding, besides the identification, square bashing & walking skills which featured in 2004, an introduction to the skills needed in surveying for the Regional Action Plan programmes. As part of the effort to meet the ever increasing demand for more recorders in the field we also intend to put on more recording days like the one at Yetminster, which will attempt to involve other groups like the Ramblers, local schools & gardening clubs in attempting some recording. Thanks mainly to the work put in by Lyn Pullen we can now provide an up to date booklet on recording in Dorset called ‘Counting Dorset’s Butterflies & Moths’.

I would like to thank all recorders, walkers, surveyors and data inputters who make my job possible. Special thanks are due to Stephen Brown who has taken over from Bernard Franklin the difficult job of organising the computer part of our recording programme. In conclusion I would like to say that the ‘three hats’ I am at present wearing (Recorder, Transect Walk & Regional Action Plan Co-ordinator) seem to be getting progressively bigger & heavier while my brain compartments may well be shrinking!” The time may be approaching when the amount of administration & organisation involved may obliterate the time available to actually enjoy watching butterflies. Experience says that when this point arrives none of the interlocking three jobs will be done effectively. I am planning therefore (when time permits!!) to write some descriptions of what is involved in the various parts of my roles for the Dorset Branch News & very much hope this may persuade some volunteers to take over those sections which may appeal to them.

Bill Shreeves

October 2004

The Dorset Branch butterfly website, www.dorsetbutterflies.com, continues to go from strength to strength.

In the summer months we now get in excess of 800 unique visitors per month, and they view on average well in excess of 5,000 pages. In the winter we still get 4-500 unique visitors per month, viewing 2-3,000 pages.

The on-line sightings submission form is proving a useful tool for getting people to contribute their butterfly and moth sightings in Dorset, and I am able to continually add new sightings to the website during the summer. The sightings from the on-line submission form are also received in a format that makes direct import into Levana possible, thereby saving valuable data entry time. I get a lot of feedback from visitors to the website, and from this it is clear that people are finding it beneficial to be able to look at the page to see what is on the wing at any time. This seems to be particularly useful for visitors from other counties, planning their holiday activities.

I get many e-mails from visitors to the website with all kinds of questions. Quite often this is a case of helping with identification of a butterfly or moth, and most are from people, who are just beginning to develop an interest in butterflies. Sometimes, though, I get asked to identify moths and that can be very difficult and then I am grateful for the help of our moth experts. Occasionally we all have to give up, such as on the recent occasion when I received a very vague description of a moth that a lady had seen in her garden in ILLINOIS, USA, which she wanted me to identify!

We have "recruited" several new members through the website, and it is nice to know that we are reaching a wider audience, who may otherwise not have thought of joining.

Anna Barwick

October 2004

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