There are three main ways for MBAN members to get involved with Butterfly surveying and recording in North Merseyside this year.

Grayling monitoring

In 2010 Merseyside BioBank commissioned – with the help of a grant from the SITA Trust – a baseline survey of the Grayling butterfly on the Sefton Coast. One of the products of that work was a new protocol for monitoring distribution of the Grayling year on year.  If you would like to take part in this monitoring you need to be able to travel to the Sefton Coast and survey an area that you will be assigned on at least three weekends during July and August. Send an email to Rich if you are interested in this.

White-letter Hairstreak survey

Over the winter of 2011-12 we will be searching for White-letter Hairstreak eggs on Elm trees in North Merseyside. During the summer we want people to record the location of as many Elm trees as they can.

You can take part in this survey now simply by collecting and sending us records of Elm trees (any type of Elm). Please make a note in the comments of each record how accessible the lowest branches of the Elms are so that we can target the winter egg searches on those trees whose branches are most accessible.

When winter comes we will contact all those who have submitted Elm records or otherwise registered their interest and organise searches for eggs.

General recording

We are concentrating, to a degree, on recording butterflies in general here at Merseyside BioBank this year and we would welcome any records of butterflies that you make. Butterflies are generally under-recorded in Merseyside (as the table below shows) so all of your records will be valuable.

The following table shows the number of butterfly records held at Merseyside BioBank:

Butterfly Records Comment

• Small Tortoiseshell – 1575 
• Large White – 1503 
• Red Admiral – 1168 
• Peacock – 1161 
• Small White – 890 
• Meadow Brow – n875 
• Speckled Wood – 866 
• Common Blue – 669 
• Grayling – 618 
• Painted Lady – 587 
• Comma – 477 
• Gatekeeper – 459 
• Small Copper – 405 
• Green-veined White – 403 
• Wall – 360 
• Orange Tip – 297 
• Small Heath – 290 
• Large Skipper – 272 
• Holly Blue – 207 
• Small Skipper – 197 
• Dark Green Fritillary – 110 
• Brimstone – 67 
• Clouded Yellow – 67 
• Purple Hairstreak – 32 
• Silver-studded Blue – 8 Various 1980-2002 especially 1985 on Sefton Coast.
• White-letter Hairstreak – 4 Various 1997-2001. Several considered reliable
• Small Blue – 3 Various. 1999-2002
• Brown Argus – 1 NCC files Ainsdale Sand Dunes 1974-1959
• Green Hairstreak – 1 Formby Point 18/04/2005
• High Brown Fritillary – 1 Sutton, Bold and Parr Mosses June 1980