by Bill Shreeves

Although it was a reasonably fine day on Saturday 17^th July 2004 only 5 of us from Dorset Butterfly Conservation and nobody from Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (unless you count Bill Shreeves who belongs to both!) turned up to record butterflies. As a result it was not possible to do all 9 of the walks meticulously planned out by Arthur Bryant. We managed 4 on the day and Arthur did two more on later dates. In spite of the poor turn out 1,500 butterflies from 24 species were counted in 25 different km squares many of which had not been visited for the 2000-04 supplementary atlas. Walk 9 by Brian Dicker counted the most butterflies (379) and walk 7 by Arthur Bryant and Peggy Taylor recorded the most species (18). Predictably Small Whites (total count 351), Gatekeeper (284) and Meadow Brown (281) were the commonest species and occurred in almost all the km squares visited. The two km squares in and around Hogstock Coppice (ST.95/06 and 95/07) contained the most species (14 in each). Neither had been visited at all during the 2000-03 period. The best record on the actual day, the sighting by Peggy Taylor and Arthur of 2 White Admirals, came from the same Hogstock Coppice squares; there have been no records of White Admirals from there since the 1980-94 atlas and their discovery means that most of the fragments of the former Manswood have at least retained small colonies. In some ways an even better record came from a later walk by Arthur on 31^st July on which he found 2 in an area to the south of Blandford Camp where they have never before been recorded in any of our Dorset atlases. Records for Brown Argus, Small Copper and Essex Skipper were mostly from new km squares.

The area surveyed was just ordinary countryside with a few patches of mixed woodland and bits of downland, which had not been completely ruined. Too dull perhaps for many of our members but areas like these are where the battle for butterfly conservation will be won or lost. We need to survey them more frequently to keep a check on what is happening and on whether schemes like countryside stewardship are working. In some ways surveys like these are much more exciting than the usual visits to reserves where it is well known what species are present. My discovery, on Arthur’s walk 8, of a small compartment of longer grasses and aromatic marjoram humming with Marbled Whites, Small Tortoiseshells, Small Copper and Essex Skipper, even though surrounded by the usual ‘green desert’ of arable crops, gave me as much pleasure as the ‘rarities’ on Fontmell Down.