As 2018’s #HeritageWeek concludes we wanted to bring you the final summary of yet another fantastic #ButterflyBash!
The weather wasn’t kind to everyone across the country for recording butterflies, but nevertheless a tremendous recording effort was made last week and we can’t thank our recorders enough for putting in the time and effort to capture records of this key group of bioindicators.
Firstly, well done Laois! Table-toppers of the Butterfly Bash recording challenge concluding the week with 288 out of the 1740 records submitted and the greatest level of ‘gap filling’ too. Wexford came a close second with 265, followed by Cork 128, Wicklow 131 and Dublin 116.
You’ve all made a fantastic contribution to the Butterfly Atlas 2021 with over 300% increase in butterfly records submitted over the same nine days last year, with Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Common Blue and Small Copper having a better August than 2017.
Particularly in those areas where butterfly records were lacking, we received 83 records across 19 10km squares where there were none in 2017 and a further 241 records from 30 squares where there were less than 5 records per square in 2017. To date the number of butterfly records received so far in 2018 is 23% above last year, so we cannot thank you enough for the support you’ve shown for the Butterfly Atlas 2021. We’re entering the final few weeks of the butterfly recording season this year, so please do keep sending in your records of autumnal butterflies!
For more information on Butterfly Atlas 21, visit: https://www.biodiversityireland.ie/record-biodiversity/surveys/butterflyatlas/
Article image: Common Blue, Lill Dunne, Kilkenny 19/08/2018.
