Grahame Hawker’s talk about butterfly identification was greatly anticipated, drew the second biggest audience of the year and didn’t disappoint.  Grahame is the Vice-chairman and Conservation & Recording Officer for the Upper Thames Branch of  Butterfly Conservation – and the champion of one of our area’s local treasures,  the Silver-studded Blue.  

In an information-rich presentation, Grahame taught us how to identify the UK’s top 12 butterflies, as well as acquainting us with many of the other 47, with a series of stunning photographs.  Despite there being only 57 different species to remember, identification isn’t always easy as female members of one species look strikingly similar to the males of another, there are exceptions to almost every rule, and in one case two species can only be told apart by looking at the underside of the tips of their antennae!

However, Grahame gave us some simple guidelines to make the task easier:

  • A little bit of homework goes a long way.  Most butterflies are seen in a bounded geographical area, at a particular season, and they prefer a specific plants and environments.  When you see something, think about where you are, the time of year, and the type of habitat you’re in.  You can even tell one species of blue butterfly from another by whether they’re flying above or below waist height.  Also some sites are renowned for being the place to see a particular rare butterfly?
  • Look for the easiest identifiable feature – every butterfly has one.
  • Size matters.  Two species might have very similar colours and markings but one might be big and the other small.
  • Don’t be afraid to use an ID app, such as Obsidentify.

Perhaps the best piece of advice was “always take a photograph first”.  That way you can identify your butterfly at your leisure, zooming in on small features which might be hard to see in the field.

Graham closed the evening with a plea for all of us to become butterfly recorders.  He encouraged us to get the iRecord Butterflies app that makes it easy to identify and log species and uploads the information to a database jointly run by Butterfly Conservation and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.  Record butterflies you see in your garden, on your walks, whenever you’re out and about.  In particular he wanted us to record sightings of the Silver-studded Blue and the Grayling, both found in and around the Bracknell area.  

If you want to know more about the work Grahame does and Butterfly Conservation in general, take a look at https://butterfly-conservation.org/in-your-area/upper-thames-branch and https://www.upperthames-butterflies.org.uk/.

Thanks again to Grahame for an fascinating and educational evening. 

Happy butterfly spotting (and recording)!