Butterfly Fun Day 2014

We had the best turn out ever for our indoor activities at our annual Butterfly Fun Day, but the poor weather put budding counters off for the big butterfly count at Killinallan. Those that did turn up were keen however and the final scores revealed that, for the first year in 3, the Meadow Brown came out as our most numerous butterfly, beating the previous years' contender (Common Blue) by about 15 to 0!

At the Centre we made delicious butterfly cakes, designed butterflies and made caterpillars and learnt about the lifecycle of a butterfly, aided by the Cinnabar Moth caterpillars which are growing well in our pavilion, having been bred from last year's chrysalises!

Many thanks to all for coming and especially to Niall and Lynda and Maggie for baking, enthusing and clearing up!
Becky

Counting butterflies at Killinallan

Caterpillars and butterflies

Unknown species of caterpillar - any suggestions?

Big Butterfly Count and 'Flower Power' at Killinallan

Twenty enthusiastic youngsters and about twelve adults met at Killinallan yesterday to take part in our Big Butterfly Count. This was for Butterfly Conservation which encourages people to count butterflies anywhere on a sunny day for fifteen minutes at a time and submit their results online. We spent two blocks of fifteen minutes counting butterflies as we walked through the long grass to the dunes. Niall Oliver was in charge of records and reported that the Common Blue was the winner. Other species were Green-veined White, Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Dark Green Fritillary.

Fiona MacGillivray of Green Bug Productions then explained 'flower power' to us and we had great fun matching leaves and petals to the colours on her rainbow charts. Michael spotted an adder (much to my surprise as the noise level was phenomenal!) and frogs and grasshoppers were regularly hopping from beneath our feet, resulting in squeals of either delight or horror from the children! We finished off the afternoon by counting the number of species of flower seen in a 3 foot square of ground. It was a most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon and a grand finale to our successful butterfly fun day. Thanks to Fiona and to all who helped or turned up to support us throughout the day.

Becky

Dark Green Fritillary - Argynnis aglaja - it came bottom of our count

Counting flowers in a square

A beautiful Frog Orchid - Coeloglossum viride

John demonstrates the height of a Marsh Thistle

Fragrant Orchid - Gymnadenia conopsea

Rainbow Colours

One of many frogs

Big Butterfly Count

 There's still chance to enter the Big Butterfly Count!

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about