Antennae - Spring 2013 : Crossword puzzle.

Here is the solution. (Antennae is a printed magazine sent to members in spring and Autumn.)

Antennae - Autumn 2012 : Article by James Weightman.

James wrote an article for Antennae about the life cycle of the Orange-tip butterfly and the techniques he used to photograph it. There were too many photographs for Antennae but they were much to good to be wasted and so the article together with missing photographs is reproduced on the website.

Flickr group. We now have a Gloucestershire Butterfly Conservation Flickr group. To look at the photos just click the logo on the left.

If you want to add photos then you must have a Flickr account first and then join the group. To add a photo to the group just click the Add photos link on the page and follow the instructions.

Flickr places cookies on your computer, refer to our Cookies statement.

Rough Bank. Butterfly Conservation has been given a unique opportunity to purchase this wonderful piece of limestone grassland. For further information see this page.

There is a list of the moth species discovered so far on the site here.

The Spring 2012 issue of Antennae (posted to all branch members) contained an article "Butterfly Recording - Can You help fill in the blanks?". The article is reproduced here with small amendments to suit the website.

The Gloucestershire branch's booklet 40 Butterfly Walks in Gloucestershire  is still available at £4.80 to include postage and packing from Butterfly Conservation, 11 Stony Riding, Chalford Hill, Stroud, GL6 8ED.

Do have a look at our Species and Habitats web pages and maybe you will be encouraged to go out and look for some of these fascinating creatures.  You might like to grow nectar friendly plants in your garden or create a wildlife friendly area - you will be surprised at what comes to visit you.

For some sites regular reports are produced, these are PDF files and can be downloaded from Site Reports. 
(The 2012 Ravensgate Hill report has been added together with some related national statistics.)

The Branch is always grateful for any records members can send in and our Species Champions would be especially grateful for information on White Letter Hairstreak, Brown Hairstreak, Silver Washed Fritillary, Marsh Fritillary, Duke of Burgundy, Wall Brown, Adonis Blue, Large Blue, Wood White, White Admiral, Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Grayling.

You may use the Contact us  form or, better still, pass on your records to the official county recorder - Chris Wiltshire - using one of the Reporting Forms.

The Gloucestershire Butterfly Forum is for the discussion of the county's butterflies: you can share your recent sightings, ask questions, post photos, and contribute any musings on our favourite subject. Reports of your daily sightings are encouraged, but please do continue to pass on your records to the official county recorder - see above.

There are a good number of moth recorders in the county and our records have been used to create distribution maps and species lists. These are really impressive and can be seen at Moth Maps.

The Gloucestershire Moth Group is a forum for the county's moth recorders. One of its most valuable uses is for identifying moths - for those who don't know there are around 2500 UK moths species compared to only 58 butterflies - and so it is heavily used during the spring, summer and autumn but less so in the winter. We also have quite a lot of reference photos for macro and micro moths trapped locally.

The Gloucestershire branch opened it's first butterfly nectar garden at The Monastery Garden at Prinknash in 2010. So far over 150 different varieties of plants have gone into making a very attractive area within the old walled garden originally tended by the monks of the Monastery .

In 2011 450 wild flower plug plants were put into the old orchard just outside the garden by students from REACH. We aim to encourage people to grow nectar friendly plants in their gardens which are such a useful resource to our butterflies and moths. A Prinknash plant list is available for download.

The garden is closed during the winter and re-opens in the spring. On one day each month during summer members of Butterfly Conservation will be present to answer questions and give advice; details for each year are on the events page from spring onwards. (You can also volunteer for open day or gardening support.)