Butterfly Conservation - North East Branch

Butterflies are widely accepted as invaluable ecological indicators of ecosystem health. Their high reproductive rates, short life cycles and often specialised habitat requirements allow butterflies to respond rapidly to environmental change.

Being insects also adds to the value of butterflies as biodiversity indicators, as insects account for more than 50% of global biodiversity and the majority of animal species in the UK (24,000 insect species, compared to around 200 breeding birds for example). Butterflies also have great popular appeal and are easy to observe and record.

These attributes have enabled a very successful monitoring scheme to be established for butterflies in the UK. This scheme is now known as the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) and it is based on regular counts of butterflies by volunteers along fixed routes ('transects'). The scheme and its predecessors have produced a substantial body of transect data in the UK over the past three decades and these data have proved invaluable for a wide range of applications, including conservation management, population ecology and climate change research.

If you think you would like to help in adding to this wealth of information by creating and monitoring a transect in your locality then please read the following information which will give you brief outline of what is involved.

1) A transect is a repeatable walk of about 1 to 1.5 km through habitat(s) which obviously usually contains butterflies.

2) A transect is divided up into a number of sections (max. 14) by types of habitat. Or if the habitat is all the same then by convenient identifiable sections, such as between corners or a length of hedge.

3) Ideally a transect should be monitored once per week between the beginning of April and the end of September. The odd missing two or three weeks can be accommodated but the results are more useful and accurate if the full 26 weeks are monitored.

4) Transects should only be monitored between the hours of 1000hrs and 1700hrs and when suitable weather conditions prevail. This means that you cannot say you will set aside a particular time each week but rather that you must be ready to go when the conditions are suitable.

5) Your transect should be relatively close to your home as weather conditions can change rapidly and the cost and time involved in travelling to your transect should also be taken into consideration.

6) A transect should only be set up if you consider that you will be able to continue monitoring your transect for a reasonable number of years. Transect data only becomes of use when a number of years data can be analysed to determine trends in butterfly populations on that particular transect and the UK in general.

Consequently if you work full time and you cannot get to your transect and monitor it during your lunch hour or you are not free to leave your work when conditions are suitable then you should not consider setting up a transect.

I always feel that I am putting people off monitoring a transect by specifying the above conditions. It is, however, better to know what you are letting yourself in for before you spend a lot of time setting up a transect only to find that it is not possible to monitor it due to other commitments.

Having decided that you will be able to satisfy the above conditions and you have decided on your transect then you can either decide to record details of your site and weekly monitoring data on paper record sheets or directly into Butterfly Conservation's purpose designed computer programme TW2.3

If you do not have the use of a computer or you prefer to, you can enter details of your site and your recordings on paper, then at the end of the season you send copies of your records to the North East Transect Coordinator. He will enter the data onto a computer data file set up for your transect and send the data to Butterfly Conservation headquarters for inclusion in the UK data base.

If you decide to use Butterfly Conservation's purpose designed TW2.3 computer programme on which to enter the data, then at the end of the season you simply email the records you have entered to headquarters. The TW2.3 programme can be downloaded for free from Butterfly Conservation web site. It is very user friendly and also allows you to look at your data in a number of different ways.

I hope that the above has not put you off and you decide you would like to set up and monitor a transect. If you have then I suggest that you read the more detailed information which can be found under the "Recording & Monitoring" link on the Butterfly Conservation web site at www.butterfly-conservation.org and then contact the Transect Coordinator for the North East of England for further information before setting up your transect.

If you find that you will not be able to monitor a transect then please consider producing casual records. This simply means recording any butterflies that you see on a record form, which we can provide or can be downloaded from this web site and at the end of the year sending it by post or email to the North of England Butterfly Recorder.