| Butterfly Conservation |  |
| saving butterflies, moths and their habitats |
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| Upper Thames Branch | ||||
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Your Records Sending in your butterfly and moth records to us
is essential if we are to continue our conservation work. We welcome information on
sightings from anywhere within our three counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire or
Oxfordshire. Anyone can send in records, whether or not you are a
member of
Butterfly Conservation, although if you are not a member we do hope that you will
seriously consider becoming one! Records must be sent to the recorders listed below
for inclusion in our database, even if you have already sent some information to any
of our Champions or to the Webmaster for the website Sightings Pages. Butterfly RecordsAll butterfly records for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire
or Oxfordshire should be sent to the Upper Thames Branch Butterfly Records Officer.
Jim Asher
24 Fettiplace Road Marcham Abingdon Oxon OX13 6PL Butterfly recording forms can be downloaded here as either Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF files. Please use the Casual Recording Form if you have records from several different locations. The Site Recording Form can be used if you have several records from just one particular site: Butterfly recording 2009 - we need your help!We are now in the fifth year of the current five-year recording window (2005-9) and aiming to cover as much of the area of our three counties as possible. A large number of records (over 76,000) have come in for 2005-8 and we are hugely grateful to all those who have responded so far to our request for help. All of these records also go into the BC national butterfly records database and will contribute to the next major report on the State of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland (targeted to come out in late 2010). The resulting database provides a crucial source of up-to-date information on our butterfly distributions, which directly supports our vital conservation work. The map of record coverage is shown below - the dots are coded according to the number of species recorded in each 2km square. As you can see we have very good coverage of many areas. We are especially grateful for the hard work of our 10km square champions - you can see where they have been active where there are filled (or near-filled) 10km squares, but there are a number of 10km squares without a champion and important gaps - the white areas of the map. Ideally, our target is to collect records from every 2km square covering the three counties (as we have achieved in previous surveys) - an ambitious aim, with a little way still to go. In particular, we badly need butterfly records from: North Bucks - especially the areas around Buckingham (SP63, SP72 and SP73), in and around Milton Keynes and Olney (SP83, SP84, SP94), the Vale of Aylesbury, particularly around Thame (SU69, SP60 and SP70) and to the north of Aylesbury (SP82), the areas between Wantage and Newbury (SU37 and SP47), north west of Banbury (SP34, SP44) and west of Oxford (SP40 and SP30). We don't have any record of Small White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown or Ringlet from SP94 - I can't believe northern Milton Keynes doesn't have these species! If you already have records from any of these areas, but have not yet done so, please send them to Jim Asher as soon as possible - it will help us avoid duplication of effort. If you live, work or visit any of these areas, please make a special effort to note the butterflies you see, with the location, date and the number of each species you have seen. Ideally we need records from late spring (e.g. May) and mid-summer (July/August) to cover most species. We will also be delighted if you could help extend your visits to some of the un-recorded areas and help fill the gaps more effectively - this will make a significant difference for us. Throughout this season, please send in your records monthly, if you can, to Jim so that he can keep an up-to-date picture of coverage. If you wish to submit your records on an Excel spreadsheet, please contact Jim for a template - to make it easier for all. We will then be able to update the overall coverage map at regular intervals on the UTB website through this season, so that you can see where gaps remain. If you are able to help with some gap-filling, please contact either Jim or Dave Wilton for up-to-date information on the target areas and print-outs for a particular 10km square showing which species have been recorded so far within each 2km square. We will be most grateful for your help - and hope that you have a good season (and better than 2008!)
* Update - 26th April 2009 * With the early spring sunshine in April, some recorders have already made visits to a number of unrecorded squares adding, in the main, species such as Brimstones, Orange-tips, Peacocks, Commas, Whites and Speckled Woods, plus Holly Blues (mostly in the east). These are shown as blue circles on the map below and illustrate how progress is being made towards filling the larger gaps on the map. These have added 47 new 2km squares to the map. Wendy Wilson, who has been doing an excellent job of filling in some of the gaps, keeps a copy of the map handy in her car. She looks for the gaps on it, then looks at the relevant OS map and identifies some small to medium sized villages in them. Wendy then heads for the churchyard, common, pub or village green as it's usually possible to park in these places and spends half an hour or so looking around. This may be a useful tip for people who don't want to stray far from their car. You can discover some lovely places this way and meet some nice people at the same time. If you have records not yet showing on this map, please send them to Jim Asher. We are grateful in
particular to Wendy Wilson, Wendy & Mick Campbell and Ched George for sending in their early records.
We will update the map again in 2-3 weeks time.
* Update - 11th May 2009 * A number of people have now submitted butterfly records from their 2009 sightings, so another map update is below. Nearly 1800 records have been sent in so far this year and over 100 previously unrecorded squares have been visited and 26 species have been recorded (3 as immature stages). So far, three people have already submitted over 200 records each! The maps below show:
1) All records for 2005-9 with the new spring visit records to previously blank squares shown as blue circles. These illustrate the good progress made so far, with some way still to go - and summer visits to be made to the blue circles in the first map. The hole in the centre is an obvious target to attack (as is the N Bucks/MK bare patch). Thank you all for your hard work so far and keep bombarding me with data
(especially in electronic format) - it really helps keep us focused! Jim Asher * Update - 26th May 2009 * The latest map (see below) has a further crop of new spring records (blue circles) following the good weather last weekend and a number of people have sent updates. As you can see, we have added quite a number of Brimstone and Orange-tip sightings. Look out now in particular for Painted Ladies - the massive invasion was underway here at the weekend. Keep up the good work - in particular records are still needed in the
middle and the North-East, but we are getting there in many areas! Jim Asher * Update - 6th June 2009 * Below are the latest maps showing more late spring records (blue circles), following the not so good recent weather, and a number of you sending me further updates. As you can see, we have added visits to a good number of additional squares, including the NE and we have added more Brimstone and Orange-tip sightings. We also see the evidence of the flush of Painted Ladies - we expect further large numbers when this mob breeds through in a few weeks time. Please keep up the good work - there is still much work to be
done in the middle and the NE, but we are getting there! Jim Asher * Update - 6th July 2009 * Below is the latest update coverage map for the UTB area - and thank you to all who have sent me updates to include in the dataset. We now have data in the system for over 620 2km squares in 2009 alone! We are now nearing the peak of the season and re-visiting sites visited in the spring months for the first time. To assist with targeting the summer visits, you will also see below maps of two common summer species, Meadow Brown and Large Skipper. I have also added Green-veined White and Small Tortoiseshell so you can see how they are shaping up. The larger gaps are disappearing under our joint efforts, with northern Bucks/MK/Newport Pagnall area still resisting attack. If we keep up this rate of progress, we will be able to claim good comprehensive coverage - we will not give up on 100% just yet! If anyone has covered their own square and can manage a little extra, let me know if you would like to tackle a new gap elsewhere. There are some star performers out there, who are really covering the ground above and beyond the call of duty - well done to them! Keep up the good work and keep sending in the records. Jim Asher * Update - 31st July 2009 * Below is the latest update map showing all records to date from 2005. There are still a number of blank squares, but we are closing out more gaps every week (we have records now from 1466 2km squares: nearly 94% of the 1560 total covering the three counties) - despite the gruesome July weather. August will need to be the big bash month! Apart from the blank squares, those showing as yellow on the map have fewer than 10 species recorded; a few have only one or two, so anything you can do to target yellow squares will also be very helpful. I have also added a map of Meadow Brown records, which further highlights squares in which we have no summer visits. The Painted Lady Map shows gaps (and where there are recent records - the red dots are where more than 10 have been recorded on one visit). At the moment, they are flying everywhere and in poor weather too. Despite the poor weather, I have still seen up to 18 species in a morning, but it is harder work to find them. I saw 10 Small Coppers in a field this week - and there are a few more Common Blues about, so keep a look out for these. So, keep up the fantastic work, especially when the weather allows, and keep
sending in your records. Jim Asher * Update - 17th August 2009 *
There has been fantastic progress in the past 2-3 weeks, and major efforts to fill in gaps are paying off -
thanks to all those who have helped so far. This will enable us to do some valuable analysis.
There's now a much smaller number of blank squares remaining on the map (see updated map below), so a big final push should fill
in as many of the remaining gaps as possible - especially those in: So please take advantage of any sunny spells of weather and
keep those records coming in. Thanks again for all your efforts so far! Jim Asher
Moth RecordsMoth records for the three counties should be sent directly to the relevant County Moth Recorder. Click here for help on recording moths and useful information about the UTB county boundaries. County Moth Recorder for Berkshire
Martin Harvey
Evermor Bridge Street Great Kimble Aylesbury Bucks HP17 9TN County Moth Recorder for Buckinghamshire
Martin Albertini
11 Hargrave Road Maidenhead Berks SL6 6JR County Moth Recorder for Oxfordshire
Martin Townsend
69 Alice Smith Square Littlemore Oxford Oxon OX4 4NQ 
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