The Big Butterfly Count

For the third year running, FOSPNR and Green Abbey joined forces to organise our own local contribution to the nationwide Big Butterfly Count.

The FOSP and Green Abbey Big Butterfly Count was held at Saintbridge Pond Nature Reserve on a summery Sunday, 28 July 2019, from 2pm until 4pm.

The event was well-attended, with a steady stream of families, couples and individuals all taking part, counting butterflies for fifteen minutes at sometime during the afternoon. Notes were made of which butterflies – and moths – were seen; the notes have been collated and submitted to bigbutterflycount.org

Observers reported seeing the following butterflies:

Large White

Small White

Green-veined White

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Speckled Wood

Comma

Painted Lady

Small Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral

Holly Blue, and last but not least

Six-spot Burnet Moth

After helping in the Count, some people participated in a seed-planting activity. The newly-planted seeds were taken home by the people who planted them and will, in due course, grow and attract butterflies and moths.

FOSP volunteers took the opportunity on the day to ask members of the public to sign a petition asking Gloucester City Council and The Environment Agency to reduce the level of silt in Saintbridge Pond. One of the effects of too much silt in the Pond is that the Pond is no longer deep enough for the swans to swim on it.

For more details on the national scene, go the following site https://www.bigbutterflycount.org/

Further details for GREEN ABBEY can be found at :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/379358125762873/

Also we have a listing on a national website that holds Forest Church listings – you have to zoom in on the map to Gloucester to find us:

http://www.mysticchrist.co.uk/forest_church/groups

 

Jane Allen
FOSP Volunteer