Welcome to the Gloucestershire Branch of Butterfly Conservation

	Rough Bank. Butterfly Conservation has been given a unique opportunity to purchase this wonderful piece of limestone grassland. For further information see this page.
	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 £4.50 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.  (New site reports are available for Lineover Wood, Ravensgate Hill and Miserden Park for the year 2010.)
	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. Open Days (12.00 noon to 4.30 pm) for 2012 are: Sunday 29 April, Saturday 26 May, Saturday 30 June, Sunday 29 July, Sunday 26 August and Sunday 30 September. See the events page for details.