Ways to Survey Butterflies in Sussex in 2012

To make your butterfly sighting a butterfly record we need the following information:

Species:Number seen : Date : Location : Grid Ref : Your name

There are many different ways you can get involved in surveying butterflies. So it's really just a case of choosing a method that suits you and your lifestyle.

A note about grid references

If you don't know the grid reference for your sighting then this website is really useful for looking up grid references for a specific place or postcode:

http://www.bnhs.co.uk/focuson/grabagridref/html/index.htm

For the atlas project we are asking for grid references which are precise to at least 1 km - so that's a four figure grid reference (e.g. TQ1234). If you see a butterfly which you think might be a rare or important sighting, then it's helpful if you can supply a grid reference which is precise to 100 m, which would be a six figure grid reference (e.g. TQ120340).

Send us your sightings from your garden or local area

We love to receive reports to our website – www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk – of your butterfly sightings in Sussex and we do our best to 'harvest' these records for the atlas. But it's better if you can send in your records to us directly, with all the information we need to make your butterfly sighting a butterfly record.

You can use these recording forms to send us your sightings in the post:
Casual recording form (130kB pdf)

Mail to:

Michael and Clare Blencowe

'Woodstock', 11 Orchard Close,
Small Dole, Henfield

Or, if you have access to a computer then it saves our volunteers' time if you can enter your records into electronic spreadsheet format and email it to the Recording Officer, Clare Blencowe at recording@sussex-butterflies.org.uk.

There are a few different options for doing this, including...

Butterfly Recorder, which is an Excel-based data entry tool. You need your own version of Microsoft Office Excel to use this tool. Clicking on the link below will download an executable setup file which just saves the Butterfly Recorder tool, along with some instructions, to a folder on your desktop.

BUTTERFLY RECORDER (3.3MB .exe file)

Simple template for entering data into calc, which is the spreadsheet software freely available from Open Office – www.openoffice.org. You would need to install Open Office to use this template.

Open Office spreadsheet (16kB .ods file)

Please note that these data entry tools were developed by our members and have not been commercially tested. They are safe and pretty straightforward to use but may have quirks we haven't discovered yet. Please save your data often and make sure you understand where your records are being saved. If you have any issues using these tools please report them to Clare Blencowe at recording@sussex-butterflies.org.uk.

Or you can use recording software to capture all your wildlife sightings.

If you do a lot of recording you might want to invest in your own biological recording software. There are various different software packages available and we can accept data exports from pretty much all of them.

We use MapMate, which is very suitable for general wildlife and butterfly recording. You can purchase your own copy if you wish from www.mapmate.co.uk.

For more information about any of the different options for submitting your butterfly sightings contact Clare Blencowe at recording@sussex-butterflies.org.uk.

We're sorry we don't have an option for you to enter your data online yet, but this is something we're looking to pursue in future.

Help us fill in the blanks!

To really help us cover the county, please contact us and we can let you know which tetrads or species near you need surveying. There are plenty of gaps in the map which we need to fill - turn that stroll in the countryside into a lepidopteral survey expedition!

If you need inspiration, look at our 'Target Squares' page where we list squares which have yet to be surveyed.

Contact Michael Blencowe at sussexgrayling@aol.com or Clare Blencowe at recording@sussex-butterflies.org.uk.

Take part in the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey

This survey targets random squares across the county and requires two survey visits throughout the year. To get more details and to find a square near you please contact Penny Green at pennygreen@sussexwt.org.uk

Commit to a weekly UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme transect

Transects are annual surveys conducted at sites every week throughout the 'butterfly season'. Contact our transect co-ordinator Peter Atkinson for more details (email: patkinson55@tiscali.co.uk)