Natural History Wanderings

The BBC reported that farmland butterflies have greatly increased in number due to the recent warm summer. The annual Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (WCMS) recorded almost twice as many insects this year. They reported:

small tortoiseshells were seen in 80% of the wider countryside sites, compared with just 40% in 2012.

Both the large and small ‘cabbage’ whites, common blue, small copper and brimstone all thrived too but the most abundant was the meadow brown, with 8,000 more butterflies counted this year than last year.

Warm summers provide ideal feeding and breeding conditions for butterflies, but wet and mild winters can have a negative impact on some species. In the long run butterflies have been declining so the future is uncertain.

Read more at: BBC Nature – Farmland butterflies bounce back