Surveys > Butterflies

Five Visit Monitoring Scheme

The Five Visit Monitoring Scheme is a reduced effort butterfly transect monitoring scheme that involves walking a fixed route five times per year counting all the butterflies seen. It helps track changes in butterfly populations and provides valuable information on regional butterfly abundance across the country.

The Five Visit Monitoring Scheme is intended to be used for recorders who don’t have time to devote to the full weekly monitoring scheme.  The Five Visit Monitoring Scheme uses the identical methodology to the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme but requires only five visits to be made during the recording season. Two walks should be completed between 22nd April and 16th June, and three walk completed between 1st July and 31st August. A minimum of two weeks should be left between walks.

Not only does the Five Visit Monitoring Scheme complement the data collected under the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, it is a very important component of the Butterfly Atlas 2021 project to allow a measure of relative abundance of butterflies across Ireland to be generated.

Wood White (Leptidea sinapis) – Liam Lysaght

Why choose the Five Visit Monitoring Scheme?

The Five Visit Monitoring Scheme is intended for surveyors who want to be involved in butterfly monitoring but who don’t have the time to devote the the full weekly butterfly monitoring scheme. This scheme is designed to capture sufficient information from a transect to estimate changes in butterfly populations and is analysed in combination with the population information from the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.

This approach is also used as part of our Butterfly Atlas 2021 but only in specific locations (High Priority Squares) and for one year only.

Recording ‘box’ within which all butterflies are counted as part of the Five Visit Monitoring and Irish Butterfly Monitoring Schemes.

What does a monitoring walk look like?

Participating in this scheme involves establishing a fixed walking route (transect) of between 1 km and 2km in length that is monitored five times from April to September. The route should be established close to where you live or work to make it convenient for you to complete the counts when the weather is suitable. The transect should be divided into 5-15 smaller sections to form sample units, and the number of butterflies seen  within 2.5 m either side of yourself and 5 m in front (a 5 m3 recording ‘box’) are counted for each section.

The route should be walked on five during the season; twice between 22nd April to 16th June, three times between 1st July and 31st August, leaving a minimum of two weeks between walks. Counts should be completed between 11:00 and 17:00hrs on days when the temperature is at least 13°C, during good weather conditions.

Anyone wishing to get involved in the Five Visit Monitoring Scheme should email butterflies@biodiversityireland.ie where you will be provided with support to get you established on the scheme.

 

Resources

The National Biodiversity Data Centre has produced a suite of resources to support recorders with butterfly recording and to develop identification skills. The different resources can be accessed from the links below.

National Sampling Framework

The National Sampling Framework is a system used for managing for large scale citizen science programs, including the Five Visit Monitoring Scheme. This framework is underpinned by a bioclimatic map this means we can relate the climate to the distribution of species.

Contact Us

As always, never hesitate to get in touch if you need any help: butterflies@biodiversityireland.ie