Our people - trainer and trainees

Claire has a long association with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Barlow Common and with butterflies. Claire has spent 17 years with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and can remember when there were roughly 25 people in the organisation, then based at Toft green in York. She started as a receptionist then became the Volunteer Development Officer before finally moving into projects varying from nature reserves to wetlands. Her personal interest in nature comes from being exposed to nature at an early age - pond dipping and nature walks with her dad are particular memories.

There were seven of us on the course, including some faces familiar to me - Hi to Sophie, Thea and Penny, and some I met for the first time - Hi to Kate, Sarah and Edward. Most are trainee volunteers which means they commit to 2 to 3 days per week of volunteering for the trust for a fixed period to gain experience which will help them with their future careers, either within wildlife conservation or in other areas. In fact, one of the volunteers has found another job since we did the training. The experience they gain here is directly transferable to other careers as they are given the responsibility to run projects and manage people, but not before a robust induction period which prepares them for the tasks in hand. It’s also very rewarding.

The Barlow Common survey

Claire has been leading the butterfly survey at Barlow Common since 2016. About half a dozen volunteers, mainly from the Barlow Task Day group, take it in turns to survey butterflies once a week from the beginning of April to the end of September- 26 weeks in total. Results are recorded on the United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) website and can be seen by following the link at the end of this article. 23 species have been spotted at Barlow during these surveys. It is likely that there are more, but some may be missed on formal surveys.

Claire took us through the method of surveying. You have to set up a transect. This is a route around a site divided into a number of sections, of roughly equal length, but with changes in habitat between sections. Transects need to be recorded on an OS map which is used by the surveyors. One survey should take place each week, but only on suitable days at the right times - warm, not too windy, sunny and not too early or late. Indeed, our course had been delayed by the typical Summer 2023 weather on the original date. For consistency of data, particularly year to year, there needs to be decent conditions on survey days. Also, during a survey, you should walk slowly, but at a consistent speed (not slowing down where you know there are a lot of butterflies just to boost the numbers!). Butterflies can only be recorded if they are 2.5 metres from the path or 5 metres in front of the surveyor, also to ensure a consistent approach, so no counting of the 100 Peacocks 5 metres to the left. This ensures every survey covers the same ground and the results are statistically comparable.

We followed the Barlow common transect. This is when you realise that all white butterflies look the same. There's the small white, the large white and the green-veined white. The green-veined white is easily identified on the rare occasion it lands nearby and closes its wings – by those green veins. If you see a small white, is it just a smaller large white? Helpfully, there is no such thing as a cabbage white. Large whites and small whites both like brassicas. Altogether on this mainly cloudy day we spotted 9 species.

Butterflies are quite delicate and tend to appear in large numbers or not at all. They are also relatively easy to identify with their different colours and patterns. Certainly, compared to bees which as far as I'm concerned only come in Hull CIty Football Club colours and tend to be the same size. We measure butterflies as they are an indicator species for insects in general. The more butterflies we see, the healthier the insect population is likely to be. The proliferation of different species also tells us about the health and spread of different habitats.

A streak of luck

Now I will go back to the pictures. I haven’t used any butterfly pictures from the training day, but I went for a walk after our Barlow task day when the sun was shining. Peacocks and red admirals were everywhere… but it is the blurred picture we saw back at the start of my blog that is the most important here… I’ll zoom in…

If you've been inspired by Howard to start identifying butterflies and perhaps take some photos, you can find a butterfly identification tool here to help get you started. 

You can also find out the latest monitoring data on the butterflies recorded at Barlow Common by visiting the United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) website