How has BH been affected by last "summer"?

Saturday, December 15, 2012  Unknown  1 comment

So, fellow streakers,

Just interested to hear how you folks feel that this year's egg counts are comparing to recent years? Have just spent nearly 4 hours out at our main Lincolnshire stronghold today in ideal weather for egg-searching. Having visited a couple of areas where I would usually expect to find good numbers of eggs,  I have to say that I am slightly disappointed with my findings...

Numbers do seem to be substantially down, perhaps not unexpectedly following one of the worst butterfly summers in recent years. Is anyone else experiencing reduced numbers this winter?

Be interested to hear from fellow egg-hunters across the land...

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1 comments:

Interesting observations Pete.

We've now completed our 'core hedgerow counts' around Grafton Wood and our data shows that although the count is up on last year, it is still fairly disappointing. Last winter's count of 163 was the lowest for 11 years. This year's count of 183 is slightly better but is still the third lowest over the last 12 years.

However, on a more positive note, we believe a key reason for the lowish count this year is down to the 'interim state' of some of the core hedgerows. Some are now quite old and are due for cutting back to promote new growth. Whilst some of the others have only just gone through this management process and have yet to regenerate enough to provide optimum egg laying growth.

Also, as you have probably seen on Gill's report of the New Year Egg Hunt, this year's shining exception, to an otherwise slightly disappointing total, is our main hedgerow 'A' which produced the highest count for 11 years and the 4th highest since recording began in 1990!

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